


(Un)Familiarity

by MegaWallflower



Category: Naruto
Genre: Betaed, Canon-Typical Violence, Damaged Kids, Hatake Kakashi Has Issues, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, POV Hatake Kakashi, Pre-Canon, Prosopagnosia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2019-08-27 01:07:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 57,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16692472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaWallflower/pseuds/MegaWallflower
Summary: Kakashi sees a few familiar faces at the chunin exams. Guy doesn’t.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There may be minor inconsistencies with the canon timeline.

Kakashi had almost expected _something_ to be different today. It was the day he was finally going to become a chunin. It was about time for Kakashi to start actually climbing the ranks. The sooner he did, the sooner he’d be free of relying on a team, or on anyone below him.

Of course, that team was holding him up yet again, even today.

Kakashi’s glare didn’t soften when the sheepish footsteps announced the arrival of his chronically late rival. One of the many reasons Obito had yet to earn Kakashi’s respect.

“You’re late again, Obito! We even went over the right path to take to get here! How do you always manage to get lost?!”

“Lost— S-shut up, Bakashi! I didn’t get lost! There was just some trouble on the way up here!”

“Why is there always trouble that only you get into?”

“Now, now,” Rin tried to soothe out. “He made it, and that’s what matters, right?”

Kakashi had expected too much. As always, Obito had been so late, they were practically going to run out of time to register, and Rin had been too easy on him for it. Kakashi was all but used to that dynamic of theirs by now.

“What room are we supposed to meet up in to sign up?” Obito asked Rin.

“Room 320…”

“So, this one!” Obito ran forward and dashed into the labeled room ahead. He grinned. “See, we’re not late! You were worried for nothing, Bakashi!”

Kakashi sighed and put his hands together. “Release.”

The room full of people and the registration desk that Obito had rushed to all warped and vanished to reveal empty, old walls and barren space. Obito confusion was met by another look of annoyance from Kakashi. “You already kept us waiting. Don’t fall for genjutsu like this already.”

“What--! No, I didn’t fall for anything! I just—”

“You’re already embarrassing yourself. Just don’t draw any bad attention to our team,” Kakashi muttered harshly, turning and leaving. He wasn’t even going to pretend to hear whatever excuse Obito had for himself this time.

“Now, now, come on you two, are we really going to fight like this today?” Rin said, stepping in between them when she saw another argument brewing. She walked as a barrier between them for the rest of the way to the actual registration room.

Kakashi was all but used to these things by now. The usual arguments came from that. Kakashi scolding Obito, Obito trying to impress Rin. All of it was about as routine now as…

“AHA!”

As was that.

The very sudden blur of green spandex.

The blur resolved into a human shape, and Obito and Rin flinched at the sudden appearance –Kakashi thought they would be used to this by now. Kakashi certainly was. The large eyes that stared right into the soul, the blinding grin, the way he stood too close and spoke too loud with that boisterous voice of his. “Rival! You’ve arrived at last!”

“Ugh! It’s beast-face again!” Obito cut in. “You’re so creepy! Go away, you’re bothering me and Rin!”

The way Guy weaved past Obito’s attempt to shove him away, it almost seemed like he had barely noticed the obstacle at all. “Ka-KASHI!” Guy grinned proudly, putting his thumb up in what he apparently deemed a “Good Guy Pose.”

Kakashi’s eyebrows braided in annoyance as he gave the boy a half-lidded, uninterested stare. Kakashi would never understand how he ended up with classmates like these.

Kakashi always tried to ignore Guy. To his credit, Guy simply had a way of making himself difficult to ignore. Instead, Kakashi simply stared at him through half-lidded eyes and a bored expression. “Guy. Your team is competing today?”

Guy seemed thrown off by the question. He stumbled in his words for a second, and his mouth twitched into an even larger smile, which was somehow possibly with Guy, if no one else. He almost looked like he was going to cry tears of joy, but instead he cleared his throat and showily spun around. When he stopped, he was pointing at Kakashi.

“My eternal rival! I knew I’d run into you here! You and I are elite, and we chase the highest heights, and becoming chunin is but a small step in that journey. Even so—No, BECAUSE of it! Rival, I challenge you! I’ll definitely reach chunin today! I’m going to show my true strength to you once and for all! The Guy you’ve faced in the past and the Guy that stands before you today are two different beasts! I said it before, but I’m!” Guy pointed his thumb at himself with even more enthusiasm than before, practically screaming now. “I’m the man who will become stronger than anyone and everyone! I’m going to be the strongest man in the whole world!”

“Hm.” He had said that before. He sounded just as delusional back then. So Kakashi gave him the same bemused expression he had given him back then, and every time he made these ridiculous declarations.

“So, what do you say, Rival? Today’s show-off is for our score! I know either I’ll win or you’ll win, and whichever of us does win will get another point! This is my chance to catch up to you!” Guy leaned forward, and Kakashi leaned back. Kakashi looking away from Guy’s gaze had little to do with the intensity of how he just sparkled with excitement sometimes, but it was a good excuse to scope out what competition he would have here besides Guy, who had never beaten Kakashi in any actual fight. The attention that his appearance alone got him was apparently not enough for Guy, because now his little declaration had all eyes in the room looking down at them.

Kakashi’s enthusiasm in return was a subdued sigh. Far less verbose. He’d never been as chatty as Guy. Kakashi didn’t care for the sound of his own voice, not like Guy, who seemed to get some sort of glee and gratification in hearing himself talk in rehearsed diatribes.

“You’ll lose,” Kakashi answered simply.

“You ALWAYS lose!” Obito chimed in unhelpfully.

Guy actually pouted at that for a second. Then he huffed. Then he grinned and held up his thumb again. “So, you accept! Thank you, Rival! This contest will be a true test of our skills! Please watch how much my abilities as a deadly Shinobi have grown!”

Kakashi almost, almost chuckled at that.

He knew that was Guy’s eventual goal, but Kakashi actually knew what being a deadly Shinobi was. In comparison to Kakashi, Guy was a kid. In comparison to _Obito_ , Guy was still a kid –even though they both looked the part, now that they’d devolved into some sort of one-sided argument that consisted of Obito yelling at Guy, and Guy thanking him for the encouragement. Guy had to look up to meet Obito’s eyes.

Guy was one of the single youngest people in the room. Kakashi knew that because he was the only one here who actually _was_ younger than Guy.

Despite being months older than Kakashi, and some centimeters taller, he always gave off the impression that he was even younger than Kakashi anyway. Something about the boundless energy and the lack of filter. Something about the fact that Guy was just sort of rounder where it counted, with baby fat on his face and big doe-eyes.

The bowl-cut actually helped him look older than he used to, but not by much.

But more than that, Guy was kind. Weird, sure, but way too kind and way too empathetic in a different way then Rin was. Guy was the type to let his emotions and feelings get the better of him.

Kakashi had recently come to learn that people like that had no business here at all.

“If it wasn’t for my figuring out the genjutsu, we wouldn’t have made it to the right room at all,” a somewhat nasally voice piped up from behind Guy. Guy was annoying, but his two teammates were, to be honest, pretty forgettable. The one with the black, round glasses was Ebisu, who specialized in ninjutsu, and that was all Kakashi had to keep in mind about him.

Guy straightened up and blinked curiously. “You’re…?”

Which was apparently more than Guy kept in mind about his teammates himself. Ebisu visibly twitched at that. “ _Ebisu_.”

“Ebisu!” Guy slapped Ebisu’s back and emphasized the word, and Ebisu nearly stumbled from the casual force. “I am grateful to you, Ebisu! I’ll train my genjutsu, too! Next time, I’ll figure it out on my own, or else I’ll run five hundred laps around the training field! I promise!”

“That’s just you making more excuses to do taijutsu instead of actually practicing with your chakra,” Ebisu grumbled. Guy looked scandalized at the accusation.

“I would NEVER make an excuse to get out of training! I’m in the Springtime of my Youth! I cannot waste it away lazing about!” He gestured emptily around the room, something meaningless he did with his energy, but Kakashi could tell it came off more like an accusation of everyone around him. “I’ll give it my all! So, give it your all to help me, too!”

“Even if I do, you’re…”

Both of them grew silent as a senbon flew passed them and narrowly missed their faces. It narrowly missed Guy’s face, at least, but Ebisu’s face had a dark, shallow cut on it now, and a much darker glare aimed in the direction of the attacker. Kakashi’s eyes followed the older boy’s gaze.

“Settle down, you’re bothering your elders,” Guy’s third teammate introduced himself by leaning back farther into his chair, as if the only thing keeping him from going to sleep was their noise. He dug around lazily in his pocket and pulled out another senbon, then placed it in his mouth like straw. He started chewing on the thin metal and looked at his partners with a lazy, amused grin. “And by elders, I mean me.” His tone was smooth, but even as he said it, his eyes scanned the room. He was clearly gauging the people who would be his opponents, unlike his teammates.

“Oh, Genma! There you are!”

“Never left, but thanks for noticing, Guy.”

“Why do you recognize _him_ right away?!” Ebisu’s voice was high pitched and accusatory. He, apparently, was still not very used to Guy either. “And you, Genma! Why are you encouraging this behavior! If we have to respect you as our elder, then Guy should learn to show me an ounce of respect as his elder!”

Genma hummed softly to himself, closing his eyes like he was really falling asleep. “You don’t respect me, Ebisu, so you can’t use that argument. Good try, though.”

Guy laughed. “Oh! This is a good opportunity for practice!” Guy turned his attention to the shallow cut on Ebisu’s face. Ebisu grimaced and drew closer to Genma.

“I am not a practice dummy for someone who can barely even weave a proper hand seal!”

“Now, now, Guy just wants to respectfully help his elder, Ebisu…” Genma’s voice trailed off as Rin and Obito both pulled Kakashi away from Guy’s team while those three were fussing over Ebisu’s little cut.

“Now that Beast Face is finally bugging someone else,” Obito complained loudly, then turned to Rin and smiled. “Let’s hurry up and get signed in, Rin!”

Rin let go of Kakashi, and instead held Obito’s hand. “Yeah! Come on, let’s hurry before time really does run out.”

Kakashi shrugged and followed after Rin. At least Obito was moving forward with some sense of purpose now. If he considered being pulled along by Rin while he was lamely blushing and stuttering “moving forward”.

_“Did you hear that outburst? Pipsqueak can talk big, I’ll give him that.”_

Kakashi’s ears perked up in recognition.

He knew that voice. Where did he know that voice from?

_“Chip off the old block, like father like son, huh? He’ll be a failure too. Just as funny to watch him trying, though!”_

_“Even funnier! God, that kid’s pathetic. Loud and useless, like a hurt little puppy. He’s got a proud tradition of failure to uphold, playing ninja and everything!”_

Kakashi knew both of those voices.

When Kakashi’s team finally made it to register for the exam, his tone shifted very suddenly. Kakashi knew these faces, too. Kakashi knew these two sorry excuses for chunin, tangentially. They had crossed paths exactly once before.

Once, when they both teamed up just to fight Guy. Calling it a fight would be generous, considering it was the two of them against _Guy_. Guy, who hadn’t even been an academy student at the time. Kakashi was a newly accepted student himself, but he vividly remembered making short work of them.

Apparently, a humiliating defeat against someone who was barely five years old had not enough to actually shut them up.

That was back when Kakashi had a father, too. A father who was sure that Guy was going to get strong enough to eclipse Kakashi someday. A father who was so proud of Kakashi when he ran in to save the poor, hopeless kid.

(Kakashi’s father had asked him what made him want to run in and help Guy so passionately. Kakashi, the genius, really didn’t know the answer himself. He’d told his father it was irritating seeing a boy that the White Fang had personally praised losing such an embarrassing fight. Besides, the kid couldn’t even land a hit for people insulting his father. Who did that? Kakashi had heard whispers of insults against his own father around then. Maybe that was what ticked him off more than anything. It had nothing to do with Guy himself.)

It didn’t matter now.

A father who was an idiot and a weakling and a traitor. A man Kakashi shouldn’t model himself after. He had to remind himself of that frequently.

Kakashi shouldn’t even concern himself with his own father, much less with a father like Duy. Much less with a couple of chunin that Guy should have been angry about. For all his talk about self-rules, it sure didn’t look like Guy had taken chance to return a single punch for the insults they levied against his dad.

Rin and Obito were already signing in and showing their identification. They were giggling to each other, just excited to be here.

When Kakashi approached the desk, all four of them fell silent. Kakashi was glaring daggers, and any ninja worth a thing –so honestly, _less than half_ the people in this room –would feel something like bloodlust from the way his chakra was flared right now. Rin certainly seemed to notice something was wrong. Obito was busy noticing that Rin was noticing something, of course.

Kakashi shouldn’t even bother with things this stupid.

Kakashi had more than enough of his own problems to worry about.

“Rival, is something the matter?” And there was that flash of green again.

Guy was right in Kakashi’s face. So, he was crouching down on the table in front of him. Kakashi pointed turned his gaze to something behind Guy, so Guy turned his head and stared at the chunin.

That was another weird thing about Guy. He worried about other people too much. Kakashi in particular, even though Kakashi was the last person who would need to rely on anyone else. He especially didn’t see himself relying on Guy, ever.

Guy turned back to Kakashi, and the blank look on his face was almost as infuriating as it had been to see those two beat him up in the first place. Guy frowned pensively, then slammed his fist into his own palm, as if Guy had made some big realization.

“Ah! I get it, I’m in your way! Sorry, Rival! I would never try to sabotage your registration! How else would we meet in battle?” Guy leapt off the table, with more grace than he used to have, and landed right beside Kakashi. “I really do have a good feeling about these exams! I’ll truly shine! I can tell! You see, rival, my dear teammate, Genma--”

“Hey, kid,” the irritating voice of one of the chunin proctors interrupted Guy before he could continue his flowery speech. “If you’re done here, then go back to your team.”

Kakashi half-expected that voice to at least rouse some sort of recognition in Guy. Guy wasn’t all that good at masking his emotions. Kakashi would know if he was.

Guy simply grinned at the two chunin and stuck up his thumb. “Of course, esteemed proctors! The two of us are contenders to watch! We’re going to blow this place away! So be sure to register him properly just as you did for us! Please and thank you!”

Guy turned to go back to his team, apparently confident that his job there was done.

Kakashi was going crazy. That was the only explanation for why he would have expected anything but that from Might Guy.

Kakashi grimaced and spoke anyway. “Are you _serious_?” Despite his snarky tone, there was a hint of anger in his voice. It might have been directed at Guy.

Guy didn’t pick up on it at all.

“Very serious, Rival! I’ll show you today! Just watch me! Best of luck!”

Guy didn’t care that these two sorry excuses for Shinobi were the one who mocked and belittled his own father. Guy didn’t even care enough to notice. It annoyed Kakashi to realize how angry that made him.

“Kakashi…? Are you alright?” Rin.

“Don’t get so hung up on Beast-face, or he’ll never leave us alone. He’ll probably get knocked out in the first round anyway, just ignore him.” Obito.

Kakashi frowned and turned his attention back to registering.

Everyone was just being themselves. Obito was being Obito, Rin was being Rin.

“Rival…?”

Guy was being dense.

These exams were perfect for knocking some sense into naïve fools like Guy anyway.

Not that it had anything to do with Kakashi. Kakashi penned down his name. “I guess we’ll all show what we’re made of today.”

Guy’s grin was blinding. Literally –why did he insist on angling it to sparkle in the light that way? “Oooh! You seem kinda pumped up today, Rival! That’s what I’m talking about! Let’s go! With a youthful shout! Fight! Fight! And one more—” Guy jumped. Hopefully he really was pretending not to notice that no one else was joining in his little rallying cry. But this was Guy, he really was that dumb sometimes, apparently. Either way, Guy’s last cry was loud enough to ring throughout the entire building.

_“FIGHT!!”_

Somehow, it still wasn’t loud enough to hide the sound of the others laughing at it.


	2. Chapter 2

Kakashi straightened to attention as the familiar shinobi walked into the room. “Genin! To your seats!” he announced with a sneer, as he glared pridefully over the crowd. All the genin scattered quickly to their places, finally quieting down. “The first part of this exam,” he announced, setting down a stack of papers, “will be a written test.”

“Oh no,” Obito muttered to himself, loud enough for Kakashi to hear, turning a worryingly pale shade. Kakashi sighed. What happened to him and his declarations of “ _Bring it on”_ and “ _I can take anything that test throws at me!”_?

Hopefully he would be able to work at least some the questions out on his own. Either that, or find a way to cheat off Rin, even though they weren’t next to each other. Kakashi snuck a glance at Guy who looked focused and determined, as per usual. Guy perked up and his gaze met Kakashi’s. He grinned and stuck up a thumb. “Best of luck, Rival! I definitely have this in the bag!” he whisper-shouted. It was more shout than whisper.

“Quiet down, or I’ll go ahead and disqualify you and your team, Might.”

Ebisu put one hand over Guy’s mouth and the other on top of his head. He manually forced his younger teammate to nod stiffly in response.

There wasn’t any recognition or strong emotion apparent on Guy’s face. The man who belittled Guy’s father was barking orders at them and Guy didn’t even narrow his eyes. He just stared blankly.

It shouldn’t tick Kakashi off this much, yet he looked forward and glared at the chunin passing out the test forms, telling himself he was doing this in Guy’s place.

Once the test started, the questions barely took him more than a few minutes. Kakashi set down his pencil, stood up, and walked out.

“You’re done already?”

This man should really be one of the last people in the world to doubt Kakashi’s ability. Kakashi just nodded and walked into the hallway, and finally rested against a windowsill. If he had known it would be that easy, he would have brought along a book to read in between rounds. For now, he would just wait. He just didn’t want to wait behind in that room, stuck with those two chunin and Guy.

“Rival!”

Kakashi didn’t turn around to face him, and Guy couldn’t appear in front of Kakashi this time, unless he learned how to phase through windows. Which was good –just looking at Guy was going to tick him off more right now, and he’d snap at Guy, just like he always did with Obito.

That, or Guy would do something ridiculous enough to make Kakashi have to pretend he wasn’t smiling under his mask, or something pitiful enough to make him go along with it and drop the issue.

Kakashi wasn’t enthusiastic about either option.

Dealing with Guy was a headache. He’d rather be arguing with Obito than dealing with whatever this was. “You gave up on that test fast,” Kakashi finally muttered after Guy had made it clear that he was willing to stand there peering at Kakashi in silence, as long as it took.

“Give up? I never give up! I was simply prepared! I wasn’t as fast as you, but I have confidence in my skills, you know!”

“Your memory’s about as good as your ninjutsu has always been.”

“—Thank you for your encouragement!”

Kakashi huffed. “You really let anyone say anything they want about you.”

“It pushes me to try harder! Especially when that person is you, Rival!”

Kakashi finally glanced at the boy standing next to him, gave him a scrutinizing glance, narrowing his eyes as he did so. Guy doesn’t look crazier or dumber than usual.

“…You still let them say whatever they want about your father, too,” he added quietly. Now that the words had left his mouth, it was clear to Kakashi why he was so worked up, and it might not have had everything to do with Guy. And that was all the more reason why he shouldn’t care. Guy was the only problem here.

The remark was enough to make Guy tense. It was only for a moment, but Kakashi noted how his muscles stiffened and his fists tightened, even that goofy grin of his twitched. His expression soon lightened again as Guy’s eyes were drawn away from his so-called rival, instead staring at some faraway point in the sky.

In the direction of the cemetery, Kakashi noticed.

“Didn’t you have a self-rule about that?”  Kakashi continued against his better judgement, because Guy was being silent and _that_ was weird. His tone was smug and mocking, as if he wanted this to be an argument. “You’ll hit anyone five times if they badmouth your dad? You sure gave up on that…”

Guy was still silently smiling. None of his “manly tears” or “good guy declarations,” or even a glance in Kakashi’s direction.

Kakashi spoke louder. “People above him, other genin, civilians… Everyone looks down on him. Maybe you’re just starting to agree with what those two chunin said before—"

“I don’t. I won’t. With me, I just have to prove them wrong, but I won’t forgive people who say dumb things about Papa. I won’t, but…” Guy trailed off. Then he pointedly changed the subject, “I’m going win today. I’m going to become a chunin! That’s what I’m focused on! You won’t distract me from my goal, Rival! How sneaky of you, trying to test my resolve like that! Trying to make me mad to lose my focus! It won’t work! I’ve trained my spirit just as much as I’ve trained my body!”

Kakashi felt oddly relieved when Guy finally answered. In an instant, Guy was back to animated, extraneous gestures that punctuated every sentence. And there was his Good Guy pose.

“I’ll get stronger. Me not beating those guys on my own was just me being too weak! But that’s why I’m training! If I ever see those guys again, I’ll finish my self-rule!”

Kakashi arched an eyebrow at that.

“—Alright!” Guy started to stretch. “One hundred laps around the halls to clear my mind!”

“Guy.”

Guy stopped mid dash, catching himself before he could trip. He was balanced on one leg, the other stretched behind him and his arms flailing at his side. “What’s wrong, Rival?”

“If it comes down to it, what are you going to choose?”

Guy blinked up at him with a confused glance, head tilting to one side. It wasn’t surprising; the question was cryptic, even for Kakashi.

“Forget it,” he said, simply, the implications behind the words far more than simple, the roll of his shoulders and flick of his gaze too calculated to be a casual shrug without significance and too slight to reveal any sort of meaning behind the movements. The tone of someone who is far older in mind than body. Someone who knew what he was getting into.

And Guy smiled with an air of a sweet, childish civilian about him, with a puppyish kind of personality and hope in his eyes. “’Kay! See you, then!”

And he was off. Guy shouted out what number lap he was on every time he passed Kakashi.

Kakashi had his answer, at least. Guy really didn’t recognize them. It might have been funny under other circumstances. Guy was determined to get revenge on people he couldn’t even pick out from a crowd.

Kakashi leaned against the windowsill; he honestly wasn’t surprised. Guy was always Guy— he was always the naïve sort of kid, who thought that drinking competitions where done with juice, and that good always triumphed over evil. The type who tried to pass an admittance exam without knowing any ninjutsu or genjutsu whatsoever.

The type who… Kakashi frowned. Guy just did a lot of childish things, plain and simple.

In a world Kakashi knew was cruel, it still wasn’t amusing seeing the sorts of failures Guy set himself up for. There was something about Guy that wasn’t a lack of talent; call it innocence, call it stupidity, call it naivety, it doesn’t matter.

Kakashi had told Guy he should know his place and aim lower before. Right before Kakashi caved, and kept going along with Guy anyway. Guy was stubborn in his refusal not to break, but even if Kakashi left well enough alone, Guy would have to get it eventually, one way or another.

This time around, Guy didn’t run past Kakashi and yell out his lap number.

Instead, Guy slid face first against the ground like a ragdoll. Kakashi stared at the boy laying supine before him. It wasn’t like Guy to trip in an empty hallway.

“Quiet down, there are actual shinobi taking a test today.” It was a proctor— one of the chunin Guy didn’t recognize from before. His hands were in his pockets and his leg stuck out at his side. So that was what Guy tripped over.

Guy pushed himself up to his hands and knees, and shook off the shock of the impact.

“You’re being more annoying than he is,” Kakashi took out a kunai and flashed it threateningly at the man. “My teammates are still finishing. Be quiet.”

The chunin scowled and stalked away.

Guy sniffled and wiped his arm across his face. For a moment, Kakashi thought that Guy was wiping at tears, but when he turned around, it was clearly just a bloody nose. The bandages on his arms were stained red, but there was a smile on his face.

“You’re so cool, Rival…! I’ll be quiet too! My dear teammates are also doing their best!” Guy added.

Kakashi sighed. “You could just hit him back yourself. You actually know how to throw a punch now,” Kakashi said, in the same tone he’d used to talk down to Guy when he’d actually tried, and failed, to punch that same man.

“It’s just encouragement! Like I said, if it’s about me, I just have to work harder and prove myself! And I will!” Guy focused chakra into the soles of his feet and walked up the wall onto the ceiling. “Alright! I’ll finish my laps up here! Where was I, Rival?”

“…Fifty-nine.” Kakashi put the kunai back into his pouch.

“Here’s to forty-one more!”

As Guy ran his laps upside-down, silently this time, as more and more students slowly trickled out.

Ebisu was the first of Guy’s teammates to come out. He looked around, and tried to pretend he wasn’t looking at Kakashi through his thick black sunglasses, then walked away elsewhere, muttering to himself.

Genma came out afterwards, stretching lazily. He looked expectantly at the spot next to Kakashi, then he looked straight up. He grinned and waved at Guy, who happily stopped in the middle of his 83rd lap to waved back.

“So, where’d the other one go?” Genma asked, suddenly turning his attention to Kakashi. “Nah, never mind, I’ll hunt him down myself. But, hey, while I’ve got you,” Genma looked up again, “Quick question. What’s up between you and Guy?”

Kakashi arched his eyebrows and shot Genma a half-lidded stare of bemusement. “Huh?”

“You and Guy. Cute kid, bowl cut, about this tall,” Genma mimed Guy’s height. “All I know is he calls you his rival, and that you two used to fight back at the academy.”

Kakashi remembered that Genma and Ebisu used to gawk and laugh at Guy back at the academy. “What else do you need to know besides that?”

“I’m asking if you hate him.”

“Hm,” was Kakashi’s answer.

“Aren’t you a master at conversation… He is my teammate now, I’m trying to be friends with him. So, I figured I’d try and figure out whatever this is. But I’ll worry about it later.” Genma shrugged and walked off with a devil-may-care attitude.

Obito and Rin were dead last to leave the room, but Kakashi suspected Rin just waited for Obito so they could leave together again.

“It’s finally over!” Obito collapsed against the wall with an exhausted sigh. “This is the chunin exam, what do we need all that dumb bookish stuff for anyways…!”

Rin sat down beside him and leaned against his shoulder. “You did great, Obito,” she put her hand over his and sighed as well, but she seemed more relieved than tired.

“Rin…” Obito smiled warmly as he softly spoke, accompanied with a blush. “I saw your note. That really helped me. So… I made it because you were there!” Obito fidgeted and shyly took one of Rin’s hands in both of his.

She seemed surprised, staring at the hands that were holding hers so tightly. She looked back in Obito’s eyes, and her smile somehow softened. “I’ll always be there for you, Obito,” she promised with a nod. “I knew you could finish the test. I know how amazing you are.”

“A—” He was as red as a sharingan now. That couldn’t be healthy. “And I’ll keep making it! So—s-s-so, Rin, please keep wa—"

“If you think the first round was that hard,” Kakashi cut in, “Then you should really save your speeches and thanks, Obito. You probably didn’t pass, with or without Rin’s help...”

That ended the sappy scene immediately. Obito shot a glare at the younger boy, and when that failed to get a proper reaction, he stood up and balled his fists. “You wanna go, Bakashi?! I hope part two’s a one-on-one test, so I get to make you eat your words!”

“If there’s a one-on-one test,” Guy announced, leaping down and landing right between them. Rin had to catch Obito to keep him from falling backwards in surprise. “I’m the one who will have my fated showdown with my rival!”

“Why are you two so excited to lose?” Kakashi sighed out.

“—Anyways!” Guy interjected before Obito could. “Rival! They’re posting the results! I came to tell my rival so we could see who passed, but…” Guy wiped away a tear showily. “Your teammates were having such a beautiful moment…! I couldn’t bear to interrupt it!” He gave Obito and Rin a thumbs up. “You two are truly in the Springtime of your Youth…!”

Obito blushed and looked from Rin to Guy. “T-that’s, I mean, we were…”

Rin smiled and giggled, and Obito chuckled sheepishly. “Let’s go look for our names, Obito! I know we made it for sure!”

“Let’s go too, Rival!”

Guy held out his hand to Kakashi, as if he expected them to run there together like Obito and Rin.

Kakashi put his hands together and vanished in a body flicker to get there first. It only took him a second to scan the name listed on the sheet.

Kakashi made it, obviously. Rin made it, predictably. Obito made it, technically.

And apparently Guy was serious about being able to pass it that quickly. A smirk toyed at his lips. In the back of his mind, Kakashi thought that while Guy hadn’t changed at all since he met him, at least he was growing in some regard.

Guy ran and skidded to a halt in front of Kakashi again. “You ditched me! You and your body flickers! You’re so… frustrating! …So? Did we make it?”

“I made it.”

“Rival!”

Kakashi shrugged. “Check for yourself, Guy.”

Guy took a sharp inhale. For once, he looked nervous. Guy braced himself and turned around. He had to crane and hop to see past the crowd of older genin that was forming. Kakashi couldn’t see his face, but he could tell when Guy read his name, and a wave of joy ran through his body. Guy was weirdly quiet.

“I’m there…!” He whispered to himself, then, turning to Kakashi, “My name’s there, for real! I passed! Rival, we _both_ made it!” Guy corrected. Guy’s excitable, smug grin didn’t make Kakashi want to admit it aloud, but it wasn’t as shocking or revolutionary as Guy made it seem for him to pass the first part.

One of the test proctors announced, “You don’t have time to celebrate. If you passed, go to your assigned classroom! We’ll explain the second part of the exam.”

Guy was still beaming with joy. “We should race back! Do you want to race, Rival? Ready? Set, go!”

Guy took off in a sprint.

And tripped and stumbled again. This time, he hadn’t picked up nearly as much speed, so he caught himself and landed on his knees instead of his face. And it was the other chunin this time. “Conduct yourselves like people who are actually going to become chunin someday, hm?”

A senbon flew past again, this time knocking the headband off of the tall man’s head and piercing it to the ceiling.

“Sorry, sir, slipped right outta my mouth. I have to be more careful; someone might lose an eye,” Genma drawled lazily, walking in front of Guy. He held out his hand and caught his senbon when it fell from the roof, but let the headband fall to the ground. Putting the senbon back in his mouth, Genma shot a glance in Kakashi’s direction briefly, and smirked before turning back around. “Come on, Guy, let’s save our energy and just walk there. Ebisu’s going to complain if you’re panting in his ears again.”

“Right! Of course!” Guy stood up, picking up the fallen headband and giving it to the chunin before he started to trail behind Genma. “We’ll have to have our race another time, rival! I look forward to it!”

“Always making a scene…” Obito complained. “Well! We made it! In your face, Kakashi! Ready to admit you were wrong about me?”

“…You’re pretty proud about getting in from a vacancy.” Kakashi started on his way.

“Hey, if I’m in, I’m in! You just don’t want to admit that you underestimated my abilities!”

“I admit you failed and still got lucky anyway.”

“That’s not what you need to admit!”

The next room was much smaller. It made it really clear how many people really had failed out after just the first round. Kakashi’s team sat in the far back, with Rin sat between Kakashi and Obito, in an attempt to safeguard against another argument.

“The next test,” this time it was a proctor Kakashi didn’t know already, “Will be three days from now, in the forest of death! This will test your knowledge of ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu! The point system is about more than winning and losing! Think carefully about your team’s synergy! You’re dismissed!”

A team competition. Obito grimaced more than he had when he’d heard part one was a written exam. “You better not hold us back, Kakashi.”

Kakashi scoffed and answered in kind. “Just make sure you arrive on time for once.”

“What?!”

And Rin tried another weak attempt to temper the argument that had started between them.

“I bet my team will face yours, Kakashi!”

And Guy was yet again there in an instant, squatting on the desk in front of Kakashi, getting in his face, exactly like the last time. Obito jumped back in shock and clumsily tripped over his own fallen chair. “I’m getting _really_ tired of you appearing out of nowhere!”

Guy brushed off the remark. “Rival! Here, three days from now, we’ll meet again in battle! You and I! And I’ll show you the strength of my resolve then! I feel like you’re doubting me lately!”

“…Hm. I’ll see what you and your team are made of, then.”

Guy practically bounced with excitement. “Yes! You will! And what we’re made of is guts and youth and energy!”

Three days later, Obito was nowhere to be seen when Kakashi showed up. Not that he expected him to ever be early.

Aside from the proctors, Kakashi was the first one to make it to the testing site after he checked the match-ups. Either through luck or misfortune, Kakashi’s team actually was up against Guy’s team. In the back of his mind, Kakashi wondered if this was whatever chance he was hoping for to prove to Guy that he had to change or he wouldn’t cut it.

Genma and Ebisu arrived after a few minutes. Ebisu was already fussing over something, and Genma was making a point of looking like he was ignoring him. “Yo, Kakashi!” Genma waved, and Kakashi once again realized he should carry a book with him if only to look like he had something he was busy with. “You get to fight your arch-nemesis’ team today. Bet you’ll be out for blood.”

“Genma! What do you have to gain from provoking our main opponent!” Ebisu scolded. He turned to Kakashi and flailed out a skittish apology, “Just ignore him, really, let’s all have a good clean fight!”

Genma snorted. “I don’t remember the strategy having anything to do with groveling before we go, either. Speaking of strategy, we’re missing someone important…”

“—We made it, Papa!”

“With time to spare!”

Guy and Duy arrived together, panting and grinning at each other as they skidded to a stop. They mirrored each other’s “good guy poses”.

“Today, Guy, give it your all! This is another step in your journey! You worked hard, so you’ll see the fruits of your efforts today!”

“Yes, Papa! I’ve been working on this strategy for days!”

“My son… a tactical genius as well as a formidable shinobi! There’s no father prouder than I am at this moment!” He choked out through tears, in a voice just loud enough to drown out the chorus of giggles coming from the chunin. “My pride extends to all of you! How I wish I could watch your clash today! You three don’t look excited enough! These are the chunin exams! Your chance to show off! Be full of energy!”

“Ah, Papa, um…” Guy trailed after his dad as he approached the little group around Kakashi.

“All of you, go all out with the power of youth!” Duy pulled all four of them into a hug.

Guy returned the hug with a quiet chuckle. Genma and Ebisu shifted uncomfortably. Kakashi noticed the way they fell silent when Duy arrived. For his part, Kakashi didn’t react to being pulled into the hug at all. He would reflexively tense up or pull a weapon on him if he was a stranger, but unfortunately, Kakashi was almost as familiar with Duy as he was with Guy.

Ebisu was the first to push away from the hug. “Yes, well—anyway! We have to discuss that strategy! Somewhere farther from here.” He grabbed Guy by the scarf and forced him out of the hug. “Especially your part of it.”

With half of them already out of the hug, Genma just stepped away. “Hey, chunin proctors! You guys don’t mind if we go on and head inside while we wait on Kakashi’s team, right?”

The chunin laughed and nodded, but even if they hadn’t given the okay, Ebisu was already dragging Guy in. Guy smiled and waved as he vanished behind the gates. “Good luck, rival! Later, Papa! I’ll show everyone what youth truly is today! I promise!”

“I know you will, son!” Duy waved back with even more enthusiasm.

Genma closed the gate behind him, and the two chunin double over in laughter. “Big words from the 30-year-old eternal genin!”

“Your little kid’s going to do just as well as you did Duy, don’t worry!”

It would be very easy to knock them both out again, but as soon as Duy released Kakashi from the one-sided hug, he stepped in front of the young boy and grinned at the chunin. “Thank you for your encouragement! I’ll be off, now!”

“Duy.”

Duy stopped mid-step and looked back at Kakashi. He was balanced on one leg, the other stretched behind him and his arms flailing at his side. The goofy pose was… familiar.

“You recognize those two chunin, don’t you?”

“Those two… Those two… Those two, huh!” Duy mumbled to himself as he thought it over. He opened one eye to peek at Kakashi, and finally answered, “I used to be on a genin team with those two, actually!” Kakashi noticed that they laughed even louder and said something else, but Duy spoke over them. “Some dogs only bite if you kick at them. Otherwise, they just bark and bark!”

“Don’t compare scum to dogs.”

Duy laughed, not missing a beat with that usual positive attitude of his. “Of course not! The important thing is to focus on your own strength! Both you and Guy are young! Don’t let anything drag you down on your path to greatness! Then you two will be top dogs!”

Kakashi narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

Duy squatted down, looking Kakashi square in the eyes and ruffling the crazy white hair in a caring way. “You and Guy shouldn’t lose your focus. If you think Guy is, then just jolt him back into it! That’s what great rivals and great friends are for! But there are some things you can just leave to me as his father. I’d never tell another shinobi how to live his life, but you are young –all I know is you have a long life still left to live! Make it yours!”

Kakashi blinked slowly at that.

Duy must have realized he wasn’t going to get a verbal response out of him, because he stood up and waved again before breaking into a jog. Kakashi silently stared after him.

He saw Rin arrive as Duy was leaving, which was something of a welcome distraction from being left to think about Duy. She smiled brightly when she caught Kakashi’s eye, but Kakashi was more concerned about who he didn’t see with her. “—You didn’t pick up Obito?”

“I was training with him yesterday. He said he would be able to come on his own!”

“If he doesn’t, we lose by default.”

“He will! I know Obito, he’s definitely, definitely on his way!” Rin promised.

Minutes went by, and Obito still wasn’t there.

“Team Minato, you have five minutes left. If time runs out, you’ll be automatically disqualified,” the proctor announced. The same voice that had sneered and mock Guy’s father before. Kakashi could probably still take him on. He would be even quicker about it now.

The glare on Kakashi’s face and the tense atmosphere that hung around him was apparently obvious, because Rin leaned forward and offered him a hopeful smile. “He’ll be here,” she promised them both.

Right. Those chunin weren’t the only problem Kakashi had right now.

Obito was late. Again.

“He’ll be here! I’m sure he’s coming!” Rin told the proctor.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. “You’re too easy on him, Rin. That’s why he’ll never break this habit of being late.”

“I know he’ll…” Even Rin’s smile was starting to waver now. “I’m sure…”

“—Sorry I’m late!”

Rin’s smile was back just as quickly as it had disappeared. On the other hand, Kakashi’s glare only darkened.

“Hurry, before we’re disqualified!”

“Stop yelling, Bakashi! I made it, didn’t I?”

“ _Barely_.”

Rin looked to the proctor, who nodded. He’d allow it. “Everyone is here now! Let’s begin!”

When they finally walked in, Kakashi expected to have to brace himself for an excited greeting from Guy, but he was oddly quiet. He was huddled up close to Genma, who was clearly mouthing something and waving a kunai in front of Guy. Kakashi tried to read his lips, but Genma suddenly bit down on his senbon and grinned, straightening up and gesturing for Guy to follow suit.

Ebisu just stood in his place behind them, frowning and keeping his arms folded angrily as if he was the only one who had been kept waiting. “Are we finally going to start this now?” he snapped.

“Yeah, it’s finally time for us to kick you guys’ butts!” Obito shot back, running into his spot directly opposite the other team.

Genma just gave a lazy wave to their opponents with one hand. He set a hand on Guy’s head and looked down to talk to him, this time making no attempt to hide the words.

“You ready, Guy?”

“Absolutely, my dear teammate!” There was a fire in his eyes as Genma let go of him and got into place as well. Ebisu stood in the middle, with Genma and Guy on either side of him, so Ebisu was the one opposite Kakashi. Rin stood opposite Genma, and Obito stood opposite Guy. Not a particularly inspired setup. Kakashi started working through their likely tactics in his mind.

The proctor snickered under his breath, and Kakashi shot him a glance.

He was one of the ones that had doubled up on Guy and insulted his father. How much would he have to put up with seeing their ugly mugs today? Kakashi actually could read his lips.

_Poor kid, a win by forfeit was the only one he could’ve hoped for._

“Kakashi, are you okay?” Rin asked quietly, leaning close and cupping her hand around her mouth.

What kind of face was Kakashi making for her to ask it like that? Kakashi sighed and returned to an expression of practice apathy. “Just stay focused. Both of you.”

Obito answered with an unhappy grunt, and Rin with a nod.

“Begin!”

Guy’s team took the initiative. Genma and Ebisu jumped back, and Guy dashed forward.

To Kakashi’s surprise, Obito ran in front to meet him head-on. Very literally, it turned out. He started what looked like a fire style attack, but stopped short and started choking on something.

Obito was down and out like a light. It was no surprise, after taking a hit from Guy straight to the face. A lone piece of candy rolled along the forest floor.

“That idiot…”

The last to arrive and the first one down. Kakashi sighed, only to realize there was a bright green blur very quickly coming at him. No, not quite at him.

“—Rin, brace yourself!”

“Leaf Whirlwind!”

Kakashi could hear Rin grunt as Guy’s kick connected. He could hear the sound of her losing her footing and slamming against a tree.

Past that, all he could hear and see was Guy. Rin was more competent than Obito, but Kakashi didn’t have a second to spare wondering how well she weathered that attack, and he wouldn’t have wasted a second worrying about someone else in the middle of a fight, anyway.

He braced himself in time, blocking a flurry of blows with his forearms in an effort to keep his ground.

Guy struck fast and hard, pushing Kakashi’s limits, forcing him to put up him guard. Guy struck his abdomen, his shoulder, his fist when he tried to counter, his arm when he tried to parry, his hand at the earliest attempt to form a hand sign, and then quickly back to trying to knock a short burst of wind out of Kakashi by striking fast and hard into his abdomen again.

Kakashi tried his usual tactics, shifting out of Guy’s reach, but Guy was determined, and his form was sharper that Kakashi remembered it. Today, Guy’s movements were so quick and so difficult to follow. He was almost elegant. He kept up the pressure, refusing to let Kakashi switch to offense.

Guy took full advantage of being the only one of his team on the front lines, foregoing his usual large, sweeping kicks, spins, and flips, instead doing everything he could to force Kakashi into close combat and control the direction of the fight. Kakashi was actually surprised at the restraint and reflexes this fighting style put on display.

There was the sound of a girl’s cut-off scream and then a thud, and Kakashi realized that Rin was down now, too. He couldn’t see if it had been Genma or Ebisu who managed it. Guy was rushing him too thoroughly for Kakashi to take the chance to glance over at her. Easier if he didn’t have to watch those two while he fought anyway.

He tried to get in a punch of his own, but Guy quickly weaved out of reach before it landed, then immediately darted in again to continue his quick, precise attacks.

This time, Kakashi was ready for him.

Kakashi centered his energy and controlled his breathing, meeting him blow for blow because he had to, taking Guy’s raw strength into consideration.

It’s an all-out brawl, no holds barred. They traded blows back and forth, moving in constant circles, using their surroundings to try and gain some advantage. Kakashi found that he was forced in a pretty small area to properly match Guy’s string of attacks –had he really improved that much at predicting Kakashi’s reactions?

Kakashi kicked at Guy’s midsection, but Guy twisted sideways and returned with a hard punch. It missed by less than an inch. Unfortunately, he recovered in time to avoid Kakashi’s follow-up. Kakashi tried to use that chance to put some distance between them, but instead he was forced to duck back towards Guy to avoid being decapitated by a sudden kunai.

The explosive tag on the kunai went off behind him, leaving him nowhere to go but forward for the moment.

Right. Genma.

That one would prove to be a bit of a headache with his long-distance style of attack.

Guy picked up right where he left off.

“You missed, Genma!” Ebisu’s voice.

Genma clicked his tongue. “No, I didn’t. Just focus on your part and don’t judge anyone else right now. Are you ready yet?”

“Just about!”

Kakashi glanced over at Ebisu as well as he could manage, with the way Guy was blocking his view. The second any part of Kakashi got out of Guy’s way, a blade flew past them to force Kakashi back into his close combat fight with Guy.

Guy’s team wasn’t exactly known as the best around, but it looked like they had some level of teamwork. Enough to delegate Guy as the one to rush out and force his opponents to make a move while his two older teammates stood back and waited for their chances.

The most obvious strategy was to disrupt whatever strict pattern Guy was keeping himself in, to take control of the direction of the fight back. Lunging backwards or to the sides seemed to be off the table with Genma laying in wait. Guy actively interfered with any hand seals Kakashi tried to make.

Guy was pretty lackluster at most things, but his close quarter combat skill was something even Kakashi had to acknowledge.

That didn’t mean it made him better than Kakashi, of course. At best, this tactic of theirs could force a temporary stalemate, since Genma didn’t have a limitless supply of weapons and Guy didn’t have a limitless supply of stamina.

Kakashi met him blow for blow, as always. He would need just a brief moment of distraction to deploy a shadow clone and catch Guy off guard again.

Suddenly, the winds picked up to unnaturally deafening speeds around them. Blades of wind scythed wildly around Kakashi and Guy. Kakashi recognized the jutsu. So, this was what Ebisu’s part was supposed to be.

Their aim was haphazard. Just as many of the wind blades were nicking Guy as they were hitting Kakashi at the moment. He’d rather not wait it out to see if Ebisu’s chakra control got any better, though. Guy didn’t wince from the cuts, but the force of the winds coming from behind him physically jostled him enough to throw off his timing.

Kakashi weaved a few quick hand seals now that Guy was less able to get in the way.

Guy threw a punch, and Kakashi caught him roughly by the wrist.

An illusion took over Guy’s senses, showing Guy one of the wind attacks piercing both Guy and Kakashi through the chests like an invisible pyre. It should have sent a spike of imagined pain running through Guy, but he didn’t react as an enemy paralyzed with their own pain would.

Guy’s gaze fell to the Kakashi’s gaping hole in chest instead, like he didn’t notice the other half of the genjutsu at all.

“Ka… Kakashi…?!” he choked out in a panic. He stilled for a second, except for the noticeable way his body tremble. Then, he put his hands together and weaved three hand seals quickly, and a small burst of white chakra appeared and vanished in his hands. He let out a frustrated sigh and tried again, painstakingly slowly this time. ‘Um, um, rat, ram, dog…” The white orb of chakra reappeared, tiny and shaky, but stable this time. Guy quickly shoved it towards the illusion.

“Guy, what are you doing?! I told you not to let up no matter what!” Ebisu called from behind him, but the words were lost on Guy.

It was almost sad seeing Guy so desperately trying to do what Kakashi recognized as a low-level healing technique for what was just an illusion. Kakashi didn’t waste time focusing on that, though.

Instead, Kakashi deployed three shadow clones. Kakashi and one other clone went underground, leaving his shadow clones to handle the fight for now.

One took over the fight against Guy. The other rushed towards Guy’s teammates, preparing a lightning-style attack. The attack was feigned towards Ebisu, but the clone changed course and aimed at Genma instead. “Guy!”

Guy turned his back on the clone he was facing almost immediately. “—Genma!”

Guy was there before clone’s attack could even land, and Guy took the brunt of it with just his steely resolve and crossed arms. Guy’s body convulsed and he gritted his teeth. Kakashi could hear Ebisu coming in their direction.

This split second was all the time he needed.

All three of them were close enough for him to reach up and grab both of them at the same time. His clone grabbed Ebisu and Genma. Kakashi grabbed Guy by both legs and dragged him under, trapping in solid earth up to his neck.

“Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique,” Kakashi said, in case it needed an explanation. His clones dispersed into odorless white smoke.

Guy was still in a daze from the electricity. He stared with an unfocused gaze and drool trailing down his chin. He twitched like his body was trying to break free.

“That’s enough!” Kakashi had almost forgotten the proctor was there at all. “Team Minato wins the match!”

Ebisu gritted his teeth, glaring his teammates in frustration. Genma simply frowned, rolling his teeth against a senbon that wasn’t there. Guy seemed to awaken back to alertness a moment too late.

“It’s not enough! I—I can still fight! Genma, Ebisu, it’s not over, right?! I can still…” Guy shouldn’t be able to move a muscle below his neck, but he actually gave what looked like a formidable struggle against the earth packed around him. Given enough time, he’d probably find a way to wiggle out of even this.

This was the time for the proctor to say something professional or benign, like _That’s enough. The match is over, so clear the arena and wait to hear how you scored_.

But this man, the man who had already lost once to a boy who hadn’t even been a genin yet, just snickered.

Kakashi glared.

“Genma, Ebisu, I’ll get you out of there! Just wait!”

Kakashi looked back at the trio.

Guy had actually managed to get himself out of that by himself, somehow. Quickly. A large crater was left where he used to be, and he was frantically digging up Genma now.

Kakashi weaved a few quick hand signs and the earth pushed out both Genma and Ebisu. Guy flailed in surprise and fell backwards at the sight.

“Well, we tried,” Genma sighed, stretching.

“Tried, nothing! Guy, why did you mess us up?! I knew your plan wouldn’t work in the first place, but you stopped in the middle of it!”

“I…” Guy frowned and put his hand on his chest experimentally. “…A genjutsu. Clever, Kakashi! Just what I’d expect from my rival…!”

“Can you focus on our team instead of gush about Kakashi for five seconds?” Ebisu scolded. “Genma, you have to be on my side this time! He messed up! There’s no way I’m following his lead after that!”

“What? Come on, don’t drag me in, you already know what I’m going to say…”

Kakashi felt a hand settle on his shoulder. He looked up and was greeted by the sight of his jonin leader. “Minato-sensei.” Kakashi perked up. “You were watching?”

“I was. Well done, Kakashi! You stuck it out through the end. Rin and Obito tried their hardest, too. You were up against a pretty tough team today. Lord Third was impressed with how you pulled through as well.”

“The Hokage was watching that, too? Obito’s going to have a hard time living that down.” Obito was still slumped over in a ridiculous pose on the ground next to a damp piece of candy, so for once the Uchiha didn’t shoot back an argument at Kakashi.

Minato shook his head with a smile. “You three did well out there. Obito too. He was just trying to take initiative…” Even Minato was having a hard time finding meaningful praise for that performance, then. “It’s a real shame Choza couldn’t watch his team perform today. His team really came together with their teamwork.”

“ _That’s_ teamwork?” Kakashi glanced over at the other team again. They had stopped arguing now, and instead Guy was running further into the forest.

“Leaf Whirlwind!” Guy spun and kicked a tree trunk with enough force to make the whole tree tremble. He landed back on his feet just for a second before jumping back up and grabbing a handful of leaves. “If I can catch 200 falling leaves before they hit the ground, my team will advance to the next round!” he called.

The proctor shook with barely concealed laughter.

“Guy, that’s idiotic! Our score has nothing to do with your ridiculous self-rules!” Ebisu called. “You’re embarrassing our team now!”

“Go for it, Guy! You’re halfway there,” Genma called.

Guy either didn’t hear them or didn’t care. He kept bouncing from branch to branch, collecting leaves and scrambling to reach some that danced out of his reach.

“He’s really giving it his all,” Minato praised.

Kakashi’s frown only deepened. “He didn’t learn anything from that fight. They weren’t good, they just managed to stall for a while. I won this round by myself.”

Minato grinned. “We’ll have to wait and see the points before we can say that much, Kakashi.”

Kakashi shrugged. “Then I’m going to wait in the main hall until it’s announced.”

Minato held out a book for Kakashi to take in the meantime. Kakashi gratefully accepted. “Should I let you know how many leaves Guy manages to catch in the meantime?”

“I couldn’t care less.” Kakashi answered, already well on his way and with his nose in the book.

Kakashi’s team had apparently been the last to finish this round, because the hall was already full of teams looking exhausted and talking about how it had gone.

Kakashi found a table in the corner and sat by himself.

By the time Rin came in patching up a very disgruntled Obito, Kakashi was already near the end. Team Choza was being ushered in after them, much less willingly. Ebisu was still trying to argue with Guy, although Guy didn’t seem to notice at the point.

“The following teams have made it onto the next round!” The room hushed at once, and the jonin leaders stood at attention while the board begin to list off the teams.

_Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha, Rin Nohara_

Despite everything, his team was listed first. Kakashi could hardly bring himself to feel much pride in his team for that. It was essentially his own solo score.

That didn’t stop Obito from beaming and pointing, looking from the board to Rin and back to the board with a glint in his eyes as he sat down. “Alright! Two rounds down! One more to go, Rin! You must have really showed beast-face up in there!”

“You were late and then you were unconscious. Reign in your enthusiasm,” Kakashi whispered.

Obito shot him another glare, and Kakashi shrugged it off again.

“Now, now, all three of us made it! One more round and we could really become full-fledged chunin!” Rin piped in excitedly. “I’m really grateful to you for pulling through for us, Kakashi.”

“Bet you almost lost.”

“You sure would have to bet, since you weren’t around to watch the fight after the first few seconds…”

“I swear, Bakashi…!”

“Come on, you two, the fight’s over.”

Obito went back to staring at Rin, while she fixed him with a glare. Kakashi looked back at the board.

Orochimaru’s team was listed under Kakashi’s. Kakashi recognized Anko’s name among them. Kakashi had met Orochimaru before, through Minato and Jiraiya, but not even Kakashi could get a proper read on the man. He doubted his team was at too high a caliber just because they were led by him. Minato was legendary in his own right, but one of his students was still _Obito_. Still, what were Anko’s abilities? He would have to look into it in case they fought.

Asuma’s team was listed right underneath. Kakashi would have to be cautious if he faced off against Kurenai. And Asuma was the Hokage’s son himself.

The last team to appear on the board was surprising.

_Genma Shiranui, Ebisu, Might Guy_

“WE DID IT!” Guy cheered, literally leaping out of his seat for joy. “TEAM CHOZA MADE IT! OUR EFFORTS WERE REWARDED! GENMA, EBISU, WE DID IT, WE’RE SOME OF THE BEST OF THE BEST! WE’RE…!” Guy sobbed now, choked up over his own dramatics. “One week from now, the three of us are going to be chunin! And if we don’t make it, then I’ll do 500 laps around this building, on my hands!”

The proctors cleared their throats pointedly. “As we were saying… The next round will be tournament style! One-on-one battles until one party forfeits or cannot continue! You are to meet back here in one week! Take that time to prepare, because once we begin, we’ll continue to the end!”

Kakashi closed his book.

He supposed the finals were his last chance to get through to Guy. Whatever it was he needed Guy to get. Kakashi was starting to wonder himself, watching the older boy dance around cheering to Genma about their apparent victory.

“All two hundred leaves, by the way,” Minato said, setting a hand on Kakashi’s head. The Yellow Flash was as fast as ever. “I’m proud of all three of you. How do you want to spend the week? I’ll help with whatever I can.”

“My taijutsu apparently leaves a lot to be desired… I think we should all train together and try to learn from where we messed up this round.”

“Not a lot to learn,” Kakashi remarked.

“I don’t know about you two, but I’m perfecting my fire release. No one here’s seen the true might of their future Hokage just yet! Beast-face won’t get lucky like that a second time!”

Kakashi glanced over at “Beast-face” one more time. Ebisu was trying to argue at him again, and Guy just leapt to his feet and raced out of the building halfway through whatever his teammate was telling him.

“…For once, I agree with Obito.” Kakashi stood up. “I’m training on my own this week.”

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter:  
> Contains a scene that is misinterpreted by the PoV character as self-harm  
> Contains a flashback to a suicide

Kakashi was serious about training on his own, and he did exactly that.

For one day.

Rin didn’t follow him around, Obito didn’t run after him and argue, and, most surprisingly, Guy didn’t hunt him down for a challenge or to brag about how great he’d do in the finals. Kakashi had almost forgotten how it felt to have the day to himself and practice whatever he wanted to.

******

The second day, he’d run into Obito on his way to the same training grounds, and the two of them had pointedly turned around and gone their separate ways without a word. Obito had made faces, and Kakashi might have rolled his eyes, but they didn’t even greet each other beyond that.

Rin had probably met up with Obito after that. Minato definitely had.

“Rin and Obito are training hard. Their chakra control is really getting good.”

“Better. Not ‘good,’” Kakashi remarked, continuing his one-handed pushups. Minato had forgone a traditional greeting, so Kakashi had done the same.

“I think you’ll benefit from training against another person, Kakashi. As well as you did against Choza’s team, there’s still room for improvement for you, too.”

“I won’t improve by training with those two, I beat all Guy’s team singlehandedly. There may be some competition I have to be cautious about in the final round, but those three aren’t even useful to measure my flaws against. I’m smarter than Guy, I move faster than Genma can aim, and Ebisu’s ninjutsu doesn’t compare to anything I can do.”

Minato seemed to consider that for a second. “Well, then would you like to train against the two of us today?”

Kakashi stopped his exercise and looked up with an excited glint in his eye. Now there was a chance for improvement. He was always game for a rematch against Minato. “Two?”

“Kushina will be on her way soon. She just stopped to talk to Obito and Rin for a while first.”

“She’s going to be a while, then.”

Obito was Kushina’s favorite of the three, and Kushina always gushed over how adorable and sweet Rin was. Which left Kakashi as her least favorite, simply by default. Kakashi didn’t feel one way or another about that; it was just a fact.

Not that she disliked him enough to leave him alone.

“I am not ‘going to take a while,’” Kushina exclaimed, leaping down from the trees, “I just had to beat some sense into Obito again before I could take my eyes off of him.” She grinned and brought up her fist. “But I’m ready and raring to go now!”

“There you go. We’ll go two-on-one then. Think you’re good enough to take two legendary jonin at once, Kakashi?”

Kakashi finally pushed himself up to his feet, but Kushina answered before he could.

“You were bragging about your big three-to-one victory the other day, so this will be a breeze for you, you know!”

She was clearly trying to egg him on. If she hoped he’d respond as indignantly as Obito always did, she was probably disappointed when Kakashi answered with a simple, “Alright, let’s do it.”

Kushina’s grin widened anyway. “That’s the spirit! Now, on the count of three!”

Kakashi shifted into a battle position while Minato counted off.

As many as times Kakashi had fought Minato, it never got any easier, nor any more predictable.

Minato fought with unparalleled skill. He was quick-thinking and precise, excelled in strategy, and had an uncanny ability to analyze and counter his enemies’ attacks with near-perfect efficiency.  It made Kakashi reflect on how far from perfect he still was. The worst part was how much he was clearly holding back when they fought.

Kakashi braced himself for whatever Minato was planning, but the first one to make a move, right at the count of three, was Kushina. That threw off what little Kakashi could predict about how these fights went.

Kakashi barely dodged fast enough to avoid becoming part of the hole in the ground left by the impact of Kushina’s punch. Minato appeared and pulled her out of the way before Kakashi could use that opening to trap her with an Earth Release attack.

That retreat lasted just long enough, just high enough off the ground, to make it so that the Double Suicide Decapitation Technique wasn’t a viable option. Minato quickly released her and she was back in the fight.

Kushina didn’t fight anything like Minato. Her moves were wild and unpredictable, but she managed to perfectly avoid any attempts Kakashi made to counter. For such a rough style of battle and fiery disposition, she moved as gracefully as flowing water.

He tried to aim for the small openings that naturally came with such a hands-on approach, but even when he pulled weapons on her, she didn’t have to put much effort into turning his own moves against him.

Kakashi finally managed to put enough space between them to leap back and try to get out of her range. He weaved a hand seal. Immediately, he was flanked by Minato, kunai at the ready. Kakashi’s shadow clone vanished into smoke.

The real Kakashi came down behind him, lightning crackling in his hand. The jutsu still needed a lot of work, but it was a good chance.

Just as quickly, Kushina put her hand on Minato’s shoulder and used him as leverage to jump and angle a kick. Minato vanished in a flash, and Kushina’s kick sent him barreling to the ground.

With her foot pinned against Kakashi’s back, the fight was over already.

“That’s game, set, match, I think!” Kushina held up a hand, and Minato gave her a high-five.

“And that,” Minato announced. “Is the value of proper teamwork… in a nutshell.”

“I think you might have gone too hard, Minato, you know?” Kushina teased as she let Kakashi go.

“—Me?!” Minato seemed both genuinely taken aback and too henpecked to argue.

“I wasn’t prepared for both of you,” Kakashi conceded. “I need to train more.”

“Hey, don’t be too hard on yourself! It’s only natural that we’ve perfected our combination! After all…” she lovingly threw an arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. If Rin and Obito were here, Rin would swoon at how cute they looked and glance longingly at Kakashi, and Obito would fake disgust and tell them to get a room, but barely hide his own longing glance towards Rin and a wish that that were him. “Minato here,” Kushina continued, nuzzling against her boyfriend, “is my man of destiny!”

Kakashi sputtered out a strained cough when he heard that wording. He’d heard that phrase somewhere before.

“Maybe we really did go too far…” Kushina said in concern. “Especially that kick.”

Minato knelt down and put a hand on Kakashi’s shoulder. “Well, you have excellent instincts either way. The next round is about individual skills. Just keep in mind how powerful teamwork can be in the future, alright?”

“I,” Kakashi answered, “need to focus on the finals for now. Can you give me tips on what I need to fix, Minato-sensei?”

Minato smiled. “Sure. Ready for another round one-on-one? I’ll focus more on your weak points this time.”

Kakashi nodded and took up his stance again.

******

The third day, he wasn’t even interrupted by someone he could spar against.

“Working hard as always! Just what I expect from the boy my Guy is so inspired by!”

Well, he supposed he could spar Guy’s dad, but it would be over so quickly it would be embarrassing. Instead of acknowledging Duy’s presence, Kakashi kept up his target practice.

Duy marveled out loud every time Kakashi hit a target.

“Oooooh! That one was excellent! You’re a true sharpshooter! Impressive, young Kakashi! Ah!”

Duy was hardly the only one who was so easy to impress, but Kakashi was hardly doing anything.

Kakashi drew his sword. He might as well show off.

With his free hand, Kakashi pulled a handful of shuriken out of his pockets. He tossed them into the air as moving targets.

He ran his chakra through his sword, coating it with electricity. From a distance, he aimed and shot down every shuriken he threw.

Kakashi jumped in the air, somersaulted, and landed squarely on his feet, catching his sword as it fell.

Blue-white lightning flashed dangerously close to where they stood, and Duy jumped in fright. When the startle wore off, Duy noticed that the lightning had perfectly carved Kakashi’s name into the ground around them.

“Oooh!” Duy clapped, big ugly tears streaming down his cheeks, “Incredible! Splendid!”

Kakashi cracked a smile, a genuine expression that showed all in the crinkles of his eyes, even with his mouth hidden. He shook his head and forced the smile down. “…I don’t know where Guy is, if that’s what you’re here for,” Kakashi finally said, gesturing with his sword.

Duy laughed, “No, no, I came here looking for someone else entirely! And I’ve found him!”

Duy set down his pack and dug around. He pulled out a wrapped container and held it out for Kakashi. “I’m on an important mission to deliver this to a certain Kakashi Hatake!”

Kakashi stared blankly in response.

Duy didn’t falter. “I’m proud of you! Guy told me about your incredible turnabout victory during your match! I’d expect nothing less from my dear boy’s rival! I’ll be cheering for the both of you! So, I thought it only right that I make you something to keep your energy up! You’re a growing boy, too!”

The silence stretched on again, and Kakashi stared at the box. So, it was food. Duy probably didn’t even have access to poisons, much less a useful knowledge of any, so it wasn’t exactly a threat.

“Duy…san.” Kakashi finally broke the silence.

“Hm?”

“You don’t really think Guy has any chance against me, do you? You saw what I can do when I’m not even being serious. It’s pretty obvious that he’s never going to match me, isn’t it?”

Duy’s laughter rang out again, and anger prickled at Kakashi’s skin. It didn’t show in his voice when Kakashi continued, “Is that really funny?”

“I don’t know your ninja way, young Kakashi. You’ll live your life however you choose, but the way we live and fight, our youth, isn’t about whether we can win or lose. It’s about why we fight in the first place.”

“There’s no rule against killing your opponent in the exams,” Kakashi continued. “The jonin won’t be there to stop it, and the finals aren’t open to the public this time around. What if I decide to fight to kill if I’m up against Guy? What would you do then?”

As always, Duy’s smile didn’t even falter. “You’re bursting with youth and talent, but I really think that both of us know my son is made of stronger stuff than that, young Kakashi,” he said, in a much more even voice than his usual boisterous shouts. He was back to almost shouting when he continued, “Regardless of why you fight and why Guy fights, both of you need to have enough fuel to keep going! Please, accept it. I really do hope you do your best. I want the both of you to bloom and blossom into stronger versions of yourselves!”

Duy seemed particularly proud of that platitude, and struck a Good Guy Pose with it.

“Hmph…” This wasn’t going anywhere. Kakashi finally held out his hand silently, looking the other way. Duy’s grin sparkled as he set the box in Kakashi’s hand.

“I really do have a mission to get to now, though!” Duy winked and waved, then started running in place. “I’ll see you around, young Kakashi! Fight!” And he was off.

When Duy was out of Kakashi’s line of sight, Kakashi opened the box warily.

Over half of the space in it was taken up by two much too large rice balls laying on a bed of lettuce. They were shaped and decorated to look like dogs. Kakashi frowned. How was he supposed to eat those?

On the half that wasn’t occupied by those, there were sausages peeled to look like octopi and apples peeled to look like rabbits.

If Kakashi didn’t know any better, he’d think he was being mocked as a little kid.

Since he did actually know better, he was pretty sure this was just a case of Duy being Duy. Duy would surely make this same kind of meal for himself, too.

Making sure no one was around to see him, Kakashi lowered his mask, closed his eyes, and bit into one of the rice balls.

Eggplant miso pork.

Duy was a terrible ninja, but he was a really good cook.

******

On the fourth day, Kakashi passed by Training Ground Nine on his way to the mountains. Guy had a habit of being there.

Kakashi had watched him train, a handful of times. Not that he’d admit it, but then again, he didn’t always go out of the way to hide it either. It was… interesting, watching Guy go through familiar motions with the amount of power he had. His determination had been a sight to see ever since they were in classes together.

To Kakashi’s surprising disappointment, there was no overenthusiastic boy smashing boulders into smaller boulders here.

“Yo, Kakashi! Didn’t think I’d see you around here,” Genma’s cocky drawl was the last thing he’d expected to find here. “Wait, wait… Tsk. You don’t have Guy trailing after you today. That’s disappointing.”

“It doesn’t matter either way. We still have a lot of training to do, Genma, leave Kakashi alone. He’s already at a jonin’s skill level, you’re not.”

“Ouch,” Genma feigned hurt, “I’ll be quick, then we’ll get back to target practice, Ebisu, promise.” Genma looked around again, like he really did expect to find Guy following Kakashi. “The two of us have been missing our third, haven’t seen him since he ran off after the last exam. I don’t think he cares that much about what Ebisu said—”

“Excuse me?” Ebisu’s eyebrow twitched and he adjusted his glasses. “Ha. Surely you’re—”

“But he cares what you say, so if you see him, make sure he hasn’t been spending the week getting into fights with the older genin. They were pretty pissed that a little kid was cheering when people twice his age didn’t make it, and all that. Choza-sensei’s going to get on our case if they do anything. Well, Guy can probably kick their asses, but still, it’d be troublesome if they don’t fight as fair as he does. And really, who would?”

Ebisu cleared his throat loudly. “Guy would be here training with us as a team if he wanted to be! He isn’t! So, who cares! He’s probably running around with his _older genin_ dad and wasting all his time on taijutsu again. He’ll learn to be more balanced and listen to me when he gets knocked flat on his face.”

Genma waved his hand to shoo Ebisu away. “So, you really haven’t seen him, then?” Genma finally shrugged and gave up on his search. “No point in holding you hostage until he comes.”

“You’re so obsessed with Guy lately. You two are up to something…” Ebisu muttered.

Kakashi started to turn and walk away, but now Ebisu ran in front of him.

“Wait—K-Kakashi. Since you’re here, we can… compare notes about the competition we’ll be up against tomorrow.” Ebisu fixed his glasses and pulled out a small notebook that he began thumbing through. Notes about everyone who had made it to the finals were scribbled down. Kakashi skimmed them. “From my research, the one to most watch out for is Asuma, Lord Hokage’s son, who utilizes chakra blades in close combat… Do you agree?”

“No,” Kakashi answered in a flat tone.

“O—oh, right. Of course. I’ll rethink it then…” Ebisu took out a pen and scribbled something down.

Kakashi walked off while the older genin was preoccupied with that.

He did make a good point, though. It would help to know more about his opponents before the final round started. Since Ebisu had mentioned it, now seemed like a good time to scope out the competition. Knowledge was half the battle.

He circled back around and watched Genma and Ebisu from the trees.

They really were doing simple target practice. Ebisu made shadow clones and sent fire balls out that Genma shot through with senbons he spat out of his mouth. They didn’t display anything particularly noteworthy, but Kakashi took note of the level of accuracy they could reach before they started missing.

Asuma’s team was training in a field not too far away.

Raido and Asuma were sparring with weapons, while Kurenai sat off to the side meditating. Her chakra felt noteworthy, but the other two were pretty standard.

“Kurenai, did you see that?” Raido grinned, standing over a staggered Asuma.

“Lucky shot,” Asuma mumbled as he stood back up. “We’re going for real this time. Kurenai, watch me!”

Kurenai opened her eyes from her meditation and smiled, and both Raido and Asuma visibly swooned.

Kakashi almost felt sorry for them. Almost. It was his own fault if he was going to waste so much energy on silly crushes and romance, though. Rin and Obito fell in the same trap, but at least it was only two out of three in their case.

Anko and her team were harder to hunt down. They were stationed just outside the village, training in private.

Kakashi had only just settled into a viable vantage point when he sensed a presence.

“Minato’s boy… Right?” A voice whispered centimeters from Kakashi’s ears, sending a shiver up his spine.

Kakashi reflexively took out a kunai and aimed it behind him, but his arm was quickly caught. He looked up to find Orochimaru, one of the legendary sannin, looming behind him with a smile spreading across his face.

Kakashi tried to back away. Was this what a small animal felt like knowing it would be torn to shreds by its predator?

“You seem to have taken an interest in my pupils… I’m afraid I can’t have you snooping around and ruining the surprise. They’ll be showing off what they’re capable of in a few days. I’ll have to ask you to wait until then, or else…” The sannin let go of Kakashi’s arm, and Kakashi’s grip tightened around his weapon, adrenaline spiking at the vaguely veiled threat. “Run along, now. They say curiosity killed the cat.”

Kakashi didn’t stick around to see what he meant by that. He vanished in a body flicker.

He looked for his own teammates next.

Despite his big talk of doing it on its own, Obito was still training together with Rin. His fire release really was getting better, Kakashi noted. Obito had potential, when he wasn’t squandering it.

Rin was augmenting the strength of Obito’s flames with her wind release. They stopped and grinned at each other whenever they got the timing just right to perfect their combination technique.

“Whoa…! That was absolutely perfect you two, you know! Even I felt that one! I think I’m sweating!” Kushina called. Apparently, she had taken it on herself to train both of them personally. Kakashi wondered if she had been doing that all week.

Obito grinned. “Ha! That was nothing! I can do way more complicated moves than that! Rin, Kushina, watch this!”

Obito made the tiger seal and took as deep a breath as he could. He slowly breathed out a fireball that grew steady larger and started to mold itself into some kind of odd shape.

Kakashi would never know what shape he was trying to make, because in the middle of his exhale, Obito suddenly sneezed and doubled forward, leaving the unstable ball of fire to burst into embers that the girls had to dodge.

“Obito, your hair!” Rin weaved a hand seal and breathed out a stream of water to put out the flames that had caught on the edges of Obito’s hair from that stunt.

“Ah…Thanks Rin…” Obito was blushing again, his confident smile turned sheepish all of a sudden.

The sheepish smile turned into a scowl when Kushina smacked Obito’s head. “’Thanks Rin’ is right! Don’t try to be a show off if you can’t even pull off the move! You could’ve gotten hurt, you know!”

“I can do it! That was a fluke!” Obito argued. “A fluke! I’ll show you!”

Kushina huffed and folded her arms. “Your hair is smoking.”

“Huh—Huh?!” Obito frantically patted his hair. “Is it still on fire?! I don’t want to look like Kushina does when she gets mad…!”

Kushina smacked him again. “What do you mean by that, exactly…?” she snarled, her hair doing the exact thing Obito had been describing.

Obito ran away, still patting his hair. “That! I mean that!” he answered.

“I’ll show you ‘that’ then!” Kushina called after him as she gave chase.

“Obito!” Rin called, “If you don’t stop running, your hair really will catch on fire again, you know! That was a huge fireball you almost made, it’s not that easy to put out!”

Obito practically tripped over his own feet. “Huge? You think it was huge?” A big, goofy grin covered his face. “Yeah, it was really impressive, wasn’t it? Huge and hard to put out! That the power of a master Uchiha clan member’s fire!”

Rin giggled and Kushina made a show of sighing, while she secretly winked at Obito and looked between him and Rin _. You two are fired up in all sorts of ways, aren’t you?_ She mouthed so that Obito could read her lips, but not Rin.

Obito turned so red he might as well have been on fire.

Kakashi just arched his eyebrows in boredom and left. Those three were having fun with this.

That covered everyone except Guy. Kakashi couldn’t remember ever being the one who needed to hunt down Guy; it was always the other way around.

Guy was strangely hard to find. Where did he even tend to hang around, besides anywhere Kakashi was? He heard the angry cry of a cat nearby and figured he could afford to ask someone. Kakashi leapt down and landed quietly.

“You know where Guy is, right?”

Both Duy and the angry cat in his arms stopped their apparent battle to the death to stare at the young boy. “Oh! Young Kakashi!” Duy announced in a booming voice, startling the cat into scratching and wiggling in his arms again. “I’m afraid I could never sell out a comrade like that! But I’m glad you found me! In my bag, I have something for you! Can you take it out?”

Duy was easier to deal with if Kakashi just went along with it instead of ignoring him, so he went along with it.

Another box, but this time it held cut kiwis and grapes, arranged to look like turtles.

“Isn’t it cute? My adorable little Guy loves turtles more than anything, so I wracked my brain to come up with a good way to put them in! I’ll let you be the judge of their quality! Guy’s on a strict diet for now, but once the exams are over, I’m sure he’ll be overcome with glee once I surprise him with these!”

“You’re starving him for now, then?” Kakashi turned around while Duy was preoccupied with trying to calm down the cat again. Quickly, Kakashi lowered his mask, ate a turtle, and pulled it back up.

“No, no, nothing like that! I would never let my boy forget the importance of a balanced diet! He’s training himself just as much as I’m training him! My boy’s growing up so much!”

“He’s really not.”

Duy just laughed again. “So? How are the turtles? Do you think Guy will love them?”

“…They’re fine.”

******

The fifth and the sixth days, Minato made time to train with Kakashi one-on-one again.

Minato mentioned something about a talk he had with Orochimaru that made him find the time. Kakashi could tell Minato was more worried for Kakashi’s sake than he was threatened by Orochimaru himself.

Kakashi didn’t quite thank him for that, but he was grateful.

He still failed to win an actual match against his sensei on either day, but he got closer. Kakashi was confident that he could surpass the man for real soon.

******

It was the last day before the finals, and Kakashi still had yet to see or hear from Guy.

There was only so much to be done in a week, but Kakashi was confident that he’d improved his tactics and reflexes in the time he had. And aside from Orochimaru’s students, he had a good grasp of what everyone had spent the week doing. None of them were improving themselves in a way that would make them that hard for Kakashi to beat.

He still had no idea what was keeping Guy occupied. Kakashi was curious, solely for the sake of needing to understand his competition before the fights rolled around of course.

It probably didn’t matter. Even Guy couldn’t have finished anything major. A week was shorter than the length of some missions. Big positive things didn’t tend to happen that quickly, if at all. Big negative things could easily fit themselves into less than a day if they wanted to, on the other hand.

Genma had mentioned something like that.

Kakashi took a kunai and nicked the edge of his thumb, formed the seals effortlessly, and set his hand against the ground.

Once the smoke cleared, he was greeted by a pug puppy. The headband he wore was still a little too big, but the puppy had sworn to Kakashi that he’d grow into it in no time. “Boss?”

“Pakkun,” Kakashi pet the ninken behind the ears. “You remember what Guy smells like?”

“The sweaty kid with the green jumpsuit?” Kakashi nodded, and Pakkun sniffed in response. “It’s pretty hard to forget. I like him, but he’s weird. I don’t smell him on you at all, today.”

“I have to pass on a message,” Kakashi gave as an excuse, ignoring Pakkun’s observation, “Can you point me in the right direction?”

“Of course, I can,” he answered proudly, and just to show how sure he was, he started running. Kakashi followed him all the way to the gate of the village.

“He’s outside of the village. On a mission?” Pakkun asked.

“Which way?” Kakashi asked.

Pakkun sniffed the air again. “It’s a bit of a walk… this way.”

It was a pretty straightforward path at first. Broken tree and unnatural craters started to make up more of the scenery as they went along. “That’s definitely the smell of his dried blood on these,” Pakkun offered helpfully. “A lot of it.”

Kakashi didn’t react to that.

He did finally sense a familiar presence. He was more used to sensing this particular chakra signature following after him or hiding somewhere. Admittedly, it was a weak signature, and it was a person who was strangely good at hiding. Kakashi still remembered the acorn incident. “I think I can find him from here,” Kakashi said. “Thanks, Pakkun. I owe you a treat later, okay?”

Pakkun grinned proudly and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Now, Kakashi wasn’t sure what he planned to do from here.

There were times when Guy would go out of his way to hide and avoid Kakashi, or otherwise run to find Kakashi and announce his presence.

He didn’t seem to be moving to follow Kakashi or to avoid him. It didn’t even look like he’d noticed Kakashi’s presence. Either that, or he suddenly didn’t care.

The broken trees made finding a place to hide harder than usual, but there were still plenty of trunks and underbrush. He was a genius. He would make do.

From his vantage point, Kakashi could see the bruises marring Guy’s skin on his back and the nape of his neck. The bandages along his arms had unraveled, so the dried blood and callouses that they usually hid were bared now. There were new cuts and scars and bruises along his skin, but the locations of them were peculiar.

Deep cut scars along two spots on his spin were still healing. The angle of the cuts into the wounds made them seem self-inflicted.

Kakashi silently stole away into the bushes so he could see the front of Guy. His heart nearly stopped at the sight.

Guy held a blood-rusted kunai to the base of his neck. The metal of it just barely grazed his skin as he trailed the weapon lower, and it was too dull to leave a cut from contact that light.

Guy’s hand stopped briefly when the blade hovered along his abdomen, freezing in place there with a serious expression on his face. Then, he brought the blade down lower, purposely stopping at his stomach.

He shifted the angle of the kunai, and suddenly the muscles in his arms tensed as the point of the blade dug directly into Guy’s skin.

Kakashi could feel his stomach clench. Nauseated, he squeezed his eyes shut.

And saw his father’s lifeless body. Again.

He saw a stomach cut open and decaying organs flaying everywhere. He saw a warm pool of blood and cold eyes that still had some light in them. His father hadn’t struggled or made a sound, but Kakashi remembered having to watch the last of his life leave his eyes. In his mind, he saw Guy, lifeless and quiet in the exact same way, and the unease in his stomach felt even more prominent. He had seen dead bodies, countless dead bodies. Kakashi, the six-year-old, had seen more dead bodies than some adult shinobi. He didn’t understand why seeing his father like he had seen other corpses had shaken him like that. He didn’t understand why imagining Guy like that shook him too.

Without even thinking, Kakashi grabbed a shuriken from his pouch and threw it.

It struck the handle of the kunai in Guy’s hand, forcing Guy’s weapon to drop. Guy reacted with a start, looking around warily.

Kakashi’s breathing was quick and shallow, and his mind finally caught up with his actions. Kakashi shivered and drew back, feeling a cold rush of emotion. His thoughts were moving faster than he could handle, fixating on things he didn’t want to remember, and he put his hands on his head, as if to nurse a headache. Kakashi sunk down, hyperventilating.

“…Rival?”

Kakashi looked up and saw his rival leaning close, staring curiously at the boy in front of him.

His jumpsuit was still open and his bandages were still loose. Looking closer, Guy’s body really was growing. It was a far cry from the soft kid with chubby cheeks that his father had pegged as Kakashi’s future rival, that was for sure.

Kakashi took a deep breath and tried to force the memories and feelings back to the corners of his mind. “…You’re too close.” He pushed the other boy away.

“Rival! It is you! What are you doing here?” Guy asked innocently, shaking his own hand loosely to lessen the sting of having a weapon forcibly knocked out of it. “I thought I was alone out here today! I was,” Guy’s gaze wandered as he flexed his fingers. He finally fixed his jumpsuit and stood back up, giving Kakashi more space and finally deciding to finish his sentence. “Training!”

“Training?”

“Training!” Guy’s grin widened.

Kakashi’s frown deepened.

He shot a hostile glare in Guy’s direction, standing up. He knew what he saw, and it didn’t look like training. He knew what it looked like. And Guy didn’t make a habit of lying to Kakashi, but Kakashi had learned that weak people lied and pretended to be more okay then they were. Weak people lied, then they disappeared, and then they didn’t say anything else.

Kakashi wasn’t going to press the issue. He physically couldn’t force the question out of his mouth. He felt like he was going to hurl if he actually said the words.

He bit his tongue and took a breath before he could act without thinking again. He steeled his emotions and returned his breathing to normal.

Child’s play, for a shinobi like Kakashi.

Shinobi were not overtaken by emotion.

Shinobi did not dwell on comrades, fallen or otherwise.

Kakashi was back to a neutral glare and a controlled tone in no time. “Training…” Kakashi drawled, by all appearances bored and unconcerned.

Apparently, Guy hadn’t seen the hostile glare from earlier. Or maybe Guy was better at feigning ignorance than Kakashi gave him credit for.

Guy just began wrapping the bandages back around his arms. “Rival, listen! I have a proposition for you!”

“Do you really have time to fool around right now?”

“I do! The two of us have been training diligently for 6 straight days! Rest is vital to a warrior too, though! So, we should both take today to rest! That’s why you should spend the night over my house tonight, and we should head to the stadium together tomorrow! It’ll be a race!”

Guy obviously didn’t expect a yes. Kakashi grew annoyed at the possibility that Guy was really capable of being indirect enough to come up with an obnoxious proposal, specifically so Kakashi would refuse and walk away, and Guy could be left alone again. Kakashi might have to admit that he knew Guy a little less than he thought he did. He narrowed his eyes. “…What do you want to do?”

“What? That’s a weird question. I just said it! I want to spend the time with you, Rival! Ah—but you’re so hip and cool! As expected, you have important plans on your final day of preparation as well! We’ll just have to face off tomorrow!”

“My house,” Kakashi answered curtly.

“Huh?”

“You live in a tiny shack in the middle of the woods. We’ll spend the night at my house. At least I have a bed.”

Guy was silent, just blinking at Kakashi with a little, bewildered frown on his face. Then he grinned and nodded with his whole body, answering much louder than he needed to, “I’ll be there!”

“Come on.”

“Huh? You mean—now?”

“You said yourself you were going to rest today. Or are you the type who still makes big, meaningless promises?”

“O— Of course not! When a man acts tough and talks big, he has to follow through! It’s... the prerogative of youth!” Guy tripped over his words while he tried to fumble his way to an acceptable answer, and when Kakashi started walking, Guy tripped over his own feet when he rushed to follow after him.

Guy had picked himself up and ran to Kakashi’s side almost immediately, grabbing his backpack on the way. “Alright! Don’t think this means I’ll be unprepared! I’ve been training more than ever this week, secluded in the wilderness, with just Papa’s occasional guidance! The Might Guy you’ll face tomorrow is a new beast, way stronger than the Might Guy you faced in the second round!”

Kakashi didn’t respond, so Guy went on.

“—This is great rival! We can stay up all night doing new challenges!”

“No.”

“There’s no point in this at all if we do nothing at all!”

“Like you said, we’re just going to rest. That’s something.”

Guy just laughed with that goofy smile and kept going on in platitudes, with those ridiculous gestures and that bubbly voice. “That’s the opposite of something! I can think of much better ways to spend the day! Like… Taijutsu! Climbing! Running!”

Kakashi narrowed his eyes and glanced away. “You don’t sound very tired. Maybe you really did spend all week doing nothing…”

“Ridiculous! I went through strict training! Papa even taught me what to do!”

“Then learn how to rest.”

“Arrgh! Rival!” For all his whining, Guy kept following after Kakashi. He made the walk back feel even longer than it was.

It was far from the first time Guy would be at his house. Sakumo used to invite him in whenever he spotted Guy waiting in the bushes to jump out and challenge Kakashi. Guy had broken in on his own multiple times when he was trying to convince Kakashi to go along with his challenges.

It was the first time Kakashi ever invited him over, though.

That was probably the reason Guy hesitated at the doorway of Kakashi’s house. He seemed to be thinking about something.

He didn’t voice whatever it was before he slipped off his shoes and went in after Kakashi.

And eventually, Guy did manage to convince him to do some challenges.

They went about as Kakashi had expected them to go.

“Gaaah! I… I lost again!” Guy sunk down, lamenting his impressive, unbroken losing streak of over a dozen in a row in their card game.

It was no wonder Guy lived in the middle of the forest if he was this loud for every little thing. Big, exaggerated tears were rolling down his cheeks and he held the joker card in a vice grip in his hands. “Why! Why can’t I win?! You’re too good at this game, rival…!”

“And you’re remarkably bad at even this…” Kakashi said with a sigh. “Don’t you have proper skill in anything? You’re a genin now, Guy.”

Suddenly, Guy was in Kakashi’s face, leaning close with a glint in his eyes instead of tears now. “How are you doing it?! Tell me!” he demanded, too loud. Again.

Kakashi didn’t flinch. He was getting used to this. “Your face…”

“Huh? So… it’s the mask you have! No, the eyebrows… my nose?” Guy turned around and started furiously digging through his backpack.

Kakashi sighed again, his eyebrows curved in exasperation. He was stuck between amused and downright embarrassed for Guy. “No, your expression.”

“You’re saying I’m easy to read?!” Guy exclaimed, turning back around to face Kakashi in his shock. Around the lower half of Guy’s face was a bright green, hastily wrapped jumpsuit. It did nothing to hide the emotion shown by his big raised eyebrows or his pitched voice.

Kakashi involuntarily blew out a puff of air that slowly became a quiet chuckle. He silently cursed the grin that had sneaked onto his face and brought up his hand to cover it, just in case the mask wasn’t doing a sufficient job of that.

Guy blinked, suddenly falling silent with a subdued expression. Then he grinned, big and fond, eyes that sparkled as much as Guy’s smile sometimes did.

“Alright!” Guy declared as he started setting up the cards again. “Let’s have another go at it! I’ll beat you this time for sure! If I can’t win, I’ll do a hundred more pushups! I promise!”

“No matter how many times you try, it always ends up the same.”

“Ha! I’ll show you! That confidence will be your undoing! Next round, come on! Hurry, hurry!”

Kakashi gathered the cards and cut the deck methodically, going slowly more out of spite than anything else. When he finally passed out the cards, he could practically read the entirety of Guy’s hand from the shocked expression he made.

“There. Happy?” Kakashi asked, sorting through his own hand.

“—Hey, you’re not cheating, are you?!” Guy asked, glaring at a particular card in his newly dealt hand.

Expressions that easy to read on a serious mission would get him killed.

“With an opponent as weak as you, there’s no need to cheat…” Kakashi pointed out matter-of-factly.

Guy exploded, trying and failing to keep a smile off his face. “What did you say?! Then show me the cards that you dealt!” And he had jumped to his feet and moved to pounce on Kakashi.

There’s danger in the way Guy moves, quick and efficient, invading Kakashi’s space— but Kakashi is already on the ground and Guy has snatched away his cards by the time Kakashi realized that he hadn’t even registered it as a threat. “Hey! Watch it!” He was fast, Kakashi would give him that. Kakashi shoved him off so the both of them were lying on their sides and Guy wasn’t crushing him under his weight. “Guy, knock it off.”

“Oh yeah?! Maybe you tricked me last time, too!! Hmph!”

The pout on Guy’s face, which was already round with baby fat, looked ridiculous as he searched through the cards. Guy lay on his stomach next to Kakashi, looking through the confiscated cards as thoroughly as one would look through sensitive paper bombs.

Guy was a child.

Guy was a good child, but he really was just that, a child.

“Like, maybe you were hiding something up your sleeves, or you gave yourself more cards than me, or…!” Guy glanced over at Kakashi and stopped talking. He just stared, apparently confused.

Kakashi had hardly noticed himself, but he had inched closer to Guy in all this. Kakashi was usually perfectly in control of himself, with nothing betraying his thoughts or his feelings, but he found himself reaching over towards Guy in spite of himself, still lost in thought.

This house was usually so quiet and dead now, but Guy was still loud. He was full of life.

 _For now_ , at least.

Kakashi put his hand over Guy’s arm. He was warm. There was a pulse.

For all of Guy’s idiocy, Kakashi had to admit to himself, Guy was actually becoming somewhat of a competent ninja. He wasn’t exactly the same as that hopeless kid that Kakashi watched fail an easy entrance exam.

And yet.

Guy was weak. He was weak, he was emotional, everyone laughed at him, his two teammates were kids who used to unabashedly gawk and laugh while Guy trained in the schoolyards. This kid was really going to try for chunin. For what? To be laughed at more? To have to throw himself in front of more deadly things than a pulled attack from Kakashi to protect Ebisu? To protect Genma?

And then what? Just be laughed at more?

Guy was a kid. Maybe he was strong, but he was weak, caring, stupid, naïve—

The image of Guy with a kunai pressed against his own stomach flashed in Kakashi’s mind again, and Kakashi’s muscles tensed.

“Kakashi, what’s wrong? –That hurts!”

Kakashi frowned, realizing how much force he’d been putting into the hand that gripped Guy’s arm. The bandages were staining red again. Like this, Kakashi really could break it, but he didn’t let go yet.

It was just like Guy, to ask what was wrong with someone else before he even mentioned the pain in his arm. To ask what was wrong with Kakashi, as if Kakashi ever needed sympathy or pity, or whatever it was Guy offered. As if Kakashi was some helpless civilian child who needed to be taken care of or checked up on.

In the back of his mind, Kakashi had a vague memory of Guy being just as worried and unsure what to do shortly after Sakumo’s death. Kakashi was vaguely aware that there were two people, maybe three, who had ever seen Kakashi cry up until now. And two of them were dead already. Even then, Guy hadn’t technically seen Kakashi’s tears, but crying on someone’s shoulder was likely a violation of Shinobi rule 25: Never show your tears. A rule Guy broke a lot, actually. A rule that Sakumo had broken, towards the end.

Kakashi had never mentioned the moment after it passed, and surprisingly, Guy never even alluded to it. Not that it’d do Guy any good to mention it. They both knew no one would ever believe him, and Kakashi would never thank him.

Kakashi didn’t care about returning favors. He didn’t owe anything to anyone, except his loyalty to the village. He certainly didn’t owe Guy anything. It wasn’t sentiment or anything like that that made Kakashi ask, “…Guy. Is there something… on your mind?”

But by the time the words were out, Kakashi still didn’t want to think about why he felt like he should ask.

Guy’s large eyebrows braided together in confusion, but he forced his mouth into a grimace-like grin and held up a thumb. “No, nothing at all! Ah—are you angry about my earlier accusations? Right, it was unmanly of me to accuse my rival of something so low, even as a joke! I apologize! My eternal rival would never sink so low!”

Kakashi glared at that. He let go of Guy, finally sat up and closed his eyes, breathing out another labored sigh. “I just told you I didn’t need to cheat against _someone like you_.” Kakashi took back his cards and held them out for Guy to watch as the faces all changed with a simple genjutsu. Guy blinked and rubbed his eyes in confusion. “Do you really think we always have to play fair in the first place? You must not want to win _anything_ very much. Shinobi should do anything in their power to obtain their objective. Morals hold you back like feelings do.” Kakashi let the cards return to normal and shuffled his hand back into the deck. “Why am I bothering to tell you that? You couldn’t accomplish that with taijutsu alone anyway. You couldn’t even cheat properly if you tried.”

“Kakashi,” Guy said, sitting up. Either the injury on his arm didn’t hurt anymore, or he was ignoring it. “Are you mad at me? I mean, more than usual.”

This was another brick wall. Kakashi wasn’t going to let himself keep wasting his time. He’d rather not let himself say or feel more than he should, and Guy had a way of messing that up. “I’m done with the game. I won more hands than you, so the new ‘rival’ score’s 5-1. I’m going to sleep.”

“Already? Now? You shouldn’t go to sleep upset…! And we were in the middle of something! Why are you like this!”

Silence.

“Kakashi, do you have to be so weird?!”

Kakashi almost snorted at that. “I’m not. You’re just slow. And that’s not my problem…”

“Um, uh, um!” Guy seemed at a loss as Kakashi climbed into bed. He searched for some answer, just to appease Kakashi earlier question. “…Actually, there is something on my mind! These chunin exams, I mean! See, Choza-sensei is our sensei, but he’s usually busy and on important missions with his own trio! My team has to do a lot of exercises or even actual missions without a jonin instructor around at all. So, we decided, whoever becomes chunin first will be the leader on those missions! Ebisu says he’s way better than me, so he says it’ll definitely be him. And Ebisu has been training me in my weak areas, but he is… somewhat…” Guy made a face. “But Genma doesn’t even want to lead. In fact, he has his hopes placed on me! It’s strange…! I think Genma’s the first one who actually—” Guy rambled on, a blush reddening his cheeks as he continued. “I’ve never, ever had anyone cheering me on except for Papa.”

That… wasn’t what Kakashi had been asking for. More than that, that last line sounded odd. Guy had a habit of boisterous self-contradiction anyway, but…

Guy seemed to realize it as soon as he said it. “—Of course, everyone’s always cheering us on! Encouraging us to be greater and greater! Thank you for that too, my dear Rival! You, in particular, cheer me on a lot!” he quickly amended with a grin and a thumb up. “What’s really on my mind is you, Kakashi! You seem really weird! As your eternal rival, I am always here if you need a shoulder or an ear or a hand! That’s what rivals are for! Not just to stand in your way, but to stand beside you, too!”

“I told you before, I don’t need you or anyone else worrying about me.”

Guy grunted. “You and your cool guy attitu—”

“And Genma’s not the first.” _Sakumo was._

Guy blinked up at Kakashi with a confused glance, head tilting to one side. If he was expecting Kakashi to elaborate on that out loud, he would be disappointed. Instead, Kakashi just turned to look outside. The sun had started to set in the sky, but there was still light.

“It’s not that late yet…” Kakashi climbed out of bed. “Guy, come on.”

“Huh? Where’re we going?” Guy was up on his feet and ready to sprint anyway. Good at following orders, Kakashi could give him that.

“The river.”

“I know the way! Come on!”

The whole way there, Guy would run ahead, then stop and look back eagerly to make sure Kakashi was following. He’d either jog in place or run back until he was at Kakashi’s side again. Then he would get too excitable and run ahead of him yet again. More than a little kid, Guy was actually like a puppy. A regular puppy, not even a ninken.

“So, what are we here to do? Are we going to see who can hold their breath for the longest time?”

Guy beamed at the idea of getting to do more challenges, so he shouldn’t be entirely disappointed when Kakashi answered, “A ninjutsu battle.”

Guy’s smile didn’t move, but the rest of his features betrayed his lack of enthusiasm for the idea. Kakashi ignored it and took his stance some yards away from Guy.

“Here are the rules. No taijutsu attacks. Either use ninjutsu and genjutsu, or dodge.” Kakashi weaved a few quick hand seals, and lightning sparked from his hands. “Unless you’d rather forfeit?”

“I won’t forfeit. Not against you.” Guy answered, putting his hands together in preparation.

“Then let’s begin.”

Guy started by trying to make a Shadow Clone. The puff of smoke appeared, and something was left in its wake. A faceless copy of Guy.

Kakashi grimaced. Why had they let him graduate at all?

The clone charged blindly at Kakashi, and was quickly dispelled with a simple Lightning Release attack. Kakashi kept going to aim it at the real Guy.

Guy managed to deflect it, somewhat, with his own sad attempt at Lightning Release. It left Guy wide open.

Kakashi tossed his sword straight into the air to free up his hands. Flashing through the snake seal, he squatted down and slammed his hands against the ground. “Earth Release: Earth Wave Jutsu!”

The ground beneath their feet rolled like waves, and Guy lost his footing just enough for Kakashi to put to use. In a single fluid movement, he caught his sword again and rushed forward, forcing Guy back and then down when the movements of the earth under his feet didn’t allow for a proper escape.

The blade was held up an inch from Guy’s throat, coated in electricity.

Kakashi drew up the sword and brought it down. The electric blade dug into the ground next to Guy’s head, just short of cutting that bowl-cut even shorter, and Guy’s ribcage was pinned under Kakashi’s knee. “Do you forfeit now?” Kakashi asked in a low voice, tightening his grip on the hilt of his sword.

Guy blinked.

Then he laughed.

And the tension vanished, any insinuated threat or possible darker turn to the situation dissipating as Guy filled the empty air with the sound of his laughter. The seriousness of the moment was gone. It was back to this. Back to Guy clapping a hand affectionately on Kakashi’s shoulder, laughing, ignoring the glare beneath disheveled silver bangs.

“That was fun! I almost had it! The nature transformation was so close to working for me, I can feel it! Even Ebisu would be proud! But a loss and a forfeit are far from the same thing, Kakashi!”

Kakashi blinked, unable to do little more than stare as Guy flopped onto his back with more force than he should be comfortable using against the bare, now-stilled ground. “Physically and mentally, I feel refreshed! You’re still full of energy too, Rival! At times like this, I can really tell! That’s what everybody’ll be whispering to each other someday! ‘That Kakashi, he’s the great Might Guy’s eternal rival…! You can tell that he’s overflowing with youth…!’” Guy opened his eyes and met Kakashi with a surprisingly serious look. “That’s what I’ll say, at least. Sometimes people say more than that, but sometimes people are just stupid, Rival. Papa says,” Guy stopped to take a breath. “Papa says I should pick my battles carefully. I’ll still fight anyone for him, but I don’t care what they say about me. I just have to prove them wrong myself. I’m Kakashi Hatake’s eternal rival, you know…”

Kakashi climbed off of Guy, who sputtered to catch his breath now that he could breathe unimpeded.

“Ah!” Guy sat up suddenly and looked to the sky. “The sunset! It’s beautiful! A blazing, fleeting red!”

Kakashi sighed for what must have been the hundredth time today. “You’re impossible.” Kakashi settled on the ground and stared at the sunset.

“I admire Sakumo-san. He’s strong.”

The sudden change in tone was unsettling, never mind the words themselves, but Kakashi did little more than blink at Guy’s sudden change in subject.

Kakashi didn’t directly answer that. He didn’t even let himself think about an answer. When it came to his father, Kakashi needed a cold, practiced sort of apathetic look at his mistakes and his shortcomings. He was a lesson in the wrong way for a shinobi to live. How could one admire a cautionary tale? “You’re the only one who still says it like that,” Kakashi said instead. “His name, as if he’s still legendary and revered. As if I’m something special for being the White Fang’s son.”

Kakashi kept his tone even. He didn’t feel negatively or positively about that. It was an observation about the man who chose death over him, nothing more.

Guy shook his head. “No, that’s not why you’re special. You’re special because you’re the eternal rival of the green beast of the Leaf Village!” Guy cleared his throat. “Besides, I admire Sakumo-san, but I really don’t get it. I was motivated for a long time because I wanted to face you. And Sakumo-san got to always be by your side. It doesn’t make sense that he would want to leave that, I think? That part seems dumb.”

Kakashi’s mouth twitched at that remark.

To be honest, he agreed.

“I might be the dumb one, though. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t get. Ah—” Guy paused to clarify. “You asked if anything was on my mind and then you got all moody when I didn’t answer. So, I’m getting to it.” Guy took a breath.

For a while, he was quiet, staring at the sun again, muttering something about how red it was. Eventually, he continued his earlier point.

“...My team heard Papa getting yelled at. He messed up a mission. Apparently, it happens a lot. I should have jumped in to defend him, but Ebisu and Genma didn’t laugh, they just looked…” Guy huffed. “And Choza-sensei too, he just looked sorry for me. I’m going to be a chunin soon. And Papa…”

Guy absentmindedly picked up a pebble that was next to him. He tossed it at the river. It skipped eleven times before it sunk below the water’s surface. “Papa’s youth is what I live by. I wanted to be just like him. He’s amazing, but no one’s ever going to see that like this. The way he’s acting… That’s not youth at all. How can he humiliate himself like that?”

Kakashi scowled at nothing and picked up a pebble and tossed it. Twelve skips.

“That’s the way your dad raised you, isn’t it?”

Guy seemed surprised that Kakashi would respond at all.

He wasn’t half as surprised as Kakashi was to realize how much he’d meant it. He wouldn’t say it as straightforwardly as Guy did, but Kakashi did like Duy. He liked the way he made it obvious that he put his son above everything, he liked the weird way he went out of his way to encourage Kakashi too, he liked that he knew how to be a father, if he didn’t know anything else.

For a brief moment, Kakashi let himself feel some of the resentment he had towards his dad for leaving like he did, for not making Kakashi a priority. For being a failure. For falling apart right in front of Kakashi, and leaving him to pick up the pieces of a weak, broken man who made the wrong choice.

The feeling was little more than a childish selfishness and willful ignorance.

But he was with Guy. He could never be more childish than Guy was naturally, and no one would ever believe anything disparaging Guy could say about Kakashi, so he had a bit more leeway here. Guy had the nerve to complain about his embarrassing dad to an orphan. Kakashi doubted he would lose the moral high ground there, so to speak.

If Kakashi was being honest, he didn’t hate Duy anymore, the way he did when Duy laughed about his son making a fool of himself and failing the exam.

Kakashi would hate himself later for admitting it, but he understood what Duy was trying to do. Duy really did either believe everything he said or said everything he knew his son would need to hear. That determined nature of his was impossible to break. Kakashi had tried a few times, so he was sure was that.

The fact that being a laughingstock didn’t affect his parenting in the slightest… Kakashi was envious.

“I don’t think there’s a cooler shinobi out there… than your dad.” Kakashi meant the words sincerely.

Kakashi also meant the glare on his face.

“And don’t look up to my dad. A lot of the things he did were stupid. Everyone’s right about him. He’s a piece of scum. He was everything I shouldn’t try to be.”

Guy looked like he was about to voice an argument, so Kakashi immediately leaned over and pushed a hand over Guy’s mouth to silence it. Whatever Guy had to say about that, Kakashi didn’t want to hear it.

“You’re better than that. You’re better than him.” _So, don’t go trying to copy him and being an idiot, too._ In the place of those last words, which were too honest for Kakashi to actually say to Guy, Kakashi sharpened his glare in the older boy’s direction even more as he slowly removed the hand that was on Guy’s mouth.

Guy blinked, puzzled, then, suddenly, he smiled, not the gleaming sliver of white teeth but a new one, a subdued one that showed more in Guy’s eyes than on his lips. Kakashi realized that he had expected Guy to cry again.

Guy’s smile gave way to a grin. “Now I know you’re mad at me. You have a _really_ nasty glare, and even while you’re saying something nice about my papa, it sounds like you’re scolding me!” He said, leaning close to Kakashi again. Guy nodded in self assurance and drew away again. “Yeah. Yeah! I knew I was right to talk to you about it! I’d rather have your anger than anyone’s pity!”

Guy closed his eyes and leaned against Kakashi’s side fondly. Kakashi decided not to avoid it.

“I don’t think you’ve ever once pitied me. Sometimes, in class, when I failed a technique, you would look so smug and above-it-all and you didn’t even look in my direction. I can’t count how many times you walked right past me when I had collapsed from exercise. A crowd of faces I couldn’t tell apart was always laughing at me, but you just scowled like that or looked bored and sleepy and old!”

Guy hopped up.

“When you look at me like that, it really fires me up! No time to waste feeling sorry for myself, that’s time I should spend getting stronger! Time I should spend getting you to look at me for real! …You know, Kakashi, you’re a little like my papa in that way. You’re both really cool!”

He turned to face Kakashi.

“Yosh! My passion is burning brightly! I really can’t wait for the chance to square off against you tomorrow! Thank you, Kakashi!” Guy was back to his big declarations and wild gestures. Ever the show-off, instead on a simple thumbs up, he spun around. “I know I’m not yours, but you really are my best friend!”

Guy had underestimated the distance to the edge of the river. His spinning took him right of the edge, and he slipped into the water. Guy was sinking in the waves he was making before his statement had any chance to sink in for Kakashi.

“Oi—!” Guy called indignantly, flailing and making his situation much worse in what were relatively shallow waters. He looked absolutely ridiculous, like a mythical creature out there. “Oiii! Kakashi!”

Kakashi’s lips cracked a smile, and he involuntarily started chuckling at the sight.

It felt like over a week’s worth of tension fell away from him along with his bout of laughter.

Guy called out louder to drown out the sound of Kakashi laughing. “Oi! Kakashi! You jerk! I take it back! Papa’s my only best friend!” Kakashi only laughed more at that.

Somewhere between Guy’s flailing and shouting, he managed to paddle back to shore and crawl out. His face was red –he was either really angry, or blushing again, but he just looked like some sort of steamed vegetable now.

“Kakashi, I know you could have helped me with a water jutsu or something…! Take this! Water release, water beast!” Despite the impressive name, all that entailed was Guy shaking the water off himself and trying desperately to get Kakashi wet.

Kakashi leapt out of range. “Pretty slow for someone who spent a week training, aren’t you?”

“Why you…! I’m not done yet!”

Guy gave chase while Kakashi just kept vanishing and reappearing in puffs of smoke. Their game of tag continued on even after the sun had set and there was hardly any light to guide them. Eventually, Guy sunk to the ground with a cry of frustration. “Gyah, I ran out of water…!”

Kakashi caught himself laughing and smiling and having fun. He’d reprimand himself for it later. For now, though…

He squatted down in front of Guy.

“…Hand.” Kakashi gave the order and held out his hand palm-up as if he was asking one of his ninken for its paw.

“Uh?”

“Just give me your hand already.”

Guy did as he was told, setting his hand in Kakashi’s. Kakashi could feel the rough callouses through the bandages he wore. He had hands that reflected how much he fought, even if his words and actions didn’t, the gentle, deliberate way Guy put his hand in Kakashi’s.

Kakashi shifted his hand without disturbing Guy’s, twisting his palm downwards and balling it into a fist. “You recognize this hand seal, right?”

Guy tried not to make it obvious that he had to think about it. “Dog.”

Kakashi shifted his hand again, this time forcing Guy’s to move with it until their fingers were intertwined and their hands were vertical, Kakashi’s thumb on top. “This.”

“…Dragon.”                             

Kakashi shifted again, forcing Guy’s hand into a loose fist and bending up his wrist. Kakashi’s hand wrapped around Guy’s index and middle finger.

“Rat.” Guy was catching on quickly.

“You don’t have to call me _names_ , Guy. That’s uncalled for…” Kakashi teased, faking offense and hiding a smirk. It was childish, but Guy honestly made himself too easy to mess with. Guy tripped over his words trying to search out an apology while Kakashi shifted their hands one more time, this time moving so Guy’s was on top and both of them were pointing up with two fingers. “Last one.”

“—oh!” Guy was halfway through his rambling apology. “Ram!”

Kakashi pulled his hand away. “This time, you lead. Same four seals.”

“Right! That’s easy! I can do that!” Guy obviously had some difficulty moving Kakashi’s hand to match his own, but Kakashi didn’t feel like making it easier on him. “Dog. Dragon. …Rat. Ram.”

Kakashi smirked and took control of their hands back. He did the dog seal, “Make sure your top hand is flat. Flatter than that.” As soon as Guy had that right, Kakashi shifted back into dragon. “The pinkies are like this.” An easy fix. Kakashi moved on. Rat, “the left thumb has to go on the outside,” and ram, “Same for this one. Do it again.”

Guy nodded and went through the motions with Kakashi again, mouthing each seal as he did it.

_Dog, Dragon, Rat, Ram._

_Dog, Dragon, Rat, Ram._

_Dog, Dragon, Rat, Ram._

“We’re doing it for real this time. Mold your chakra into lightning. If you can.” He said it that way specifically to egg Guy on. It worked.

Guy was pretty slow at forming hand seals, so Kakashi had to match his speed. “Lightning Release,” Kakashi guided Guy’s free hand to the ground. Guy took the hint and mimicked the way Kakashi placed his palm down on the ground. “Spider Web.”

Lines of electricity spread out from them in a web-like pattern.

The blue light shimmered beneath them all around; it was dim and weak, but somehow the blues mirrored in Guy’s dark eyes looked brighter. Especially as he stared up and met Kakashi’s eyes with a look of amazement. Blue lights were reflecting off of Guy’s green suit and red scarf, and he looked like some sort of ridiculously fluorescent beacon, and yet, he was looking at Kakashi like _Kakashi_ was every star in the sky.

“You really are incredible, Kakashi…!”

Kakashi’s heart skipped a beat. It was from using lightning release, he was sure. So was the weird feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Kakashi untangled his hand from Guy’s and the jutsu vanished into sparks. Guy still kept mimicking his movements, even when Kakashi stood up and patted off his pants. Guy pretended that he had pockets to put his hands into like Kakashi did.

Kakashi pretended that there wasn’t a smile underneath his mask.

“It’s late. We should go to bed now.”

“What?! Already! You really want to give up now?!” Guy was back to being himself very quickly.

“Do you plan on sleeping through the tournament tomorrow? I’m not waiting on you.”

“Ugh…” Guy deflated dramatically, but obediently trailed after Kakashi the whole way home. “Ok, ok, I get it, Rival… I’ll get ready for bed… I bet I’ll fall asleep before you! Yosh! It’s on!”

When they got home, Kakashi paused and glared at nothing.

Nothing, but in the direction of what used to be his father’s bedroom.

“Rival? Aren’t you coming? –Ah, that glare’s back!”

“…Mm.” Kakashi didn’t need anything from Sakumo’s room. He gathered the guest blankets instead and tossed them at Guy. Guy tried to find a comfortable way to arrange himself on the floor, while Kakashi climbed into his bed.

“Guy,” Kakashi said, once the older boy had more or less trapped himself in Kakashi’s spare blankets on the ground.

“Huh?”

“A lot of things are different now.”

“Yep! It’s natural!”

“Is it?” Kakashi asked pointedly. “I’ve changed, but I don’t know if you have.”

“Of course, I’ve changed!”

“How?”

“Well, I mean, I have been getting a lot taller lately…”

“Not that.” Kakashi sighed again. “The mind matures too. Body and mind change little by little, and we end up becoming entirely different people. You can’t always be like a child forever. Unless you _plan_ to die young.”

“Rival… Are you—”

“I’m not dying. I can actually hit someone back when they hit me. Unlike everyone weak or inexperienced, I’m not going anywhere.”

“Then… that’s how I know I’m not going anywhere. I can’t be just as good as you are otherwise.”

“You’re so stupid, Guy…”

Kakashi could hear Guy stand up to his knees and crawl to the bed. Then he could feel the shift of the blankets as Guy made room for himself and searched for Kakashi’s hand in the dark.

Not wanting to deal with Guy reaching all around his bed, Kakashi simply gave him his hand.

“I know I sound stupid! I admit, you’re really smart, Rival. I don’t really get everything you’re saying… But there are things that won’t ever change! I mean, I’m still me! You’re still you! That’s what eternal means! That’s what destiny is! You’re not going anywhere, so I won’t either! That would be like running away from my rivalry! And I won’t do that! I especially won’t do that while the score is 5-to-1 in your favor! I at least need to pull ahead in our challenges first!”

“You got lucky once, in Rock-Paper-Scissors. You’re never going to be better than me in anything that counts.”

“Then I guess I’ll just have to live forever!”

Kakashi doubted that, even if the sentiment brought back the weird feeling in his stomach.

It felt like a natural time to ask about what he saw Guy doing in the woods, when he had the dull kunai pressed against his stomach. “…Why do you think you lost before?” was the question that left his mouth instead.

“Huh? At cards?”

Kakashi’s expression darkened. “In the forest. Your team lost to me, three-to-one. Do you know why?”

“I know we were close! That was my plan, you know, rush you guys and distract my Rival, the strongest one, and it almost worked! Wind is strong against lightning, so I told Ebisu that that part was up to him! He grumbled about not taking orders from me, though…! Still! I truly feel like we almost had you!”

“Why does it matter if it _almost_ worked? As a chunin, you’ll face death again and again. ‘Almost’ is the same as failing. You’ll be dead. Headhunter jutsu is usually used to make it easier to decapitate an opponent. If that was a real fight, all three of you would be dead. Do you know where your strategy messed up?”

Guy frowned. “I was too slow. But I will train diligently, and—”

“They dragged you down.”

“Eh?”

“Your teammates. You made yourself open just to protect Genma. A shinobi is supposed to put himself and his goal first. A chunin has to know that much. If you just kept pressing me and let Genma and Ebisu go down, maybe, just maybe things would be different.” Not that Kakashi sincerely believed that Guy would have beaten him. This was _Guy_. “Why would you risk everything just to save dead weight? You should do your part, they should just do theirs. And they should do it quietly, if they’re not the distraction. And more than that… you’re too soft. A shinobi should be willing to lie, to cheat, to leave anyone they don’t need for dead. That’s the least of what you’ll need to do when you start getting things higher than D-rank missions. Even if I really had been hit, that shouldn’t make you let up your attack. If you’re a shinobi, then you can’t let the death of your comrades shake you. The most important thing to a shinobi is to be a tool in order to complete the mission. Emotions are unnecessary things. It’s one of the most obvious rules…”

“But doing things like that means you’ll be all alone at the end!”

“Doing it your way means you’ll be dead.” Kakashi shot back icily.

He felt Guy’s hand settle on his, and Kakashi pulled away. Not missing a beat, Guy instead set his hand on Kakashi’s sleeve. “If I watch your back and you watch mine, no one can hurt us! There are bad teammates and bad friends and just bad people, but we’re Eternal Rivals! That’s why we won’t be dead or alone! When we’re chunin, and when we’re jonin, we’re still going to be rivals! And if I can’t rise to meet you and have your back as your rival, then I’ll keep training until I can! That’s my self-rule! I promise!”

Kakashi’s jaw clenched. Carefully, Kakashi put his hand back into Guy’s, squeezing so that he held his hand just as tightly as Guy had been holding his.

Against his palm, Kakashi could feel the steady beat of Guy’s pulse.

Then, he let go and turned around, sighing.

“You and your dumb self-rules… you still don’t get it. You haven’t changed at all. You’ll get it eventually. Just go to sleep. I already told you, I won’t wait on you if you oversleep.”

Kakashi couldn’t see what expression Guy was making, but he heard a huff and the shuffling of sheets. Kakashi figured Guy was turning to go back to his blankets on the floor and to face away from Kakashi, too. Then he felt the warmth of the older boy pressing against his back.

“I don’t know which of us is righter about that. And I don’t get you at all. But I’m your rival. I want to stay by you, Kakashi.”

Kakashi closed his eyes and ignored it, waiting it out until he was certain Guy had already fallen asleep. He ignored the rise and fall of Guy’s chest and the beating of Guy’s heart, the guarantee that another person was alive and close to him in this big empty house of a dying clan. Guy snored sometimes. Like now. His heartbeat sounded too loud, too.

They _didn’t_ help lull Kakashi to the first peaceful sleep he’d had in ages in this house. Not at all.


	4. Chapter 4

“This makes the score 6 to 1, doesn’t it?” Kakashi drawled, smirking.

Guy was gritting his teeth and clenching his fists. “No! No, no, no! This was an extension of the exams! The point goes to whichever one of us comes out a chunin! Winner takes all! We’re still 5-1 for now!”

“It doesn’t change the fact that you’re still beneath me,” Kakashi shrugged. It went without saying, but Kakashi ran the footrace. Perhaps this also went without saying, but Guy hadn’t needed Kakashi to wake him. By the time Kakashi woke up alone in his bed, Guy was just about done cooking breakfast in the kitchen.

_“I thought about it! And I wouldn’t wanna eat a turtle, so maybe you don’t wanna eat a dog? So today, I’ll make rice balls shaped like cats! We can eat those, no problem!”_

_Kakashi didn’t hate cats, actually, but the rice balls would have theoretically been easier to eat._

_Kakashi had taken over decorating them instead. Bandanas around their heads, seaweed shaped like locks of hair, ugly glares on their faces…_

_Guy still couldn’t recognize them, not even in rice ball form. It didn’t matter. They were very easy to eat._

“Kakashi. Prompt as always. You’re even here early.”

Minato’s sudden appearance spooked Guy into throwing whatever he had in his hands. In his case, the remains of a rice ball he had brought for a snack.

Minato caught the ‘weapon” with ease. “Good to see you too, Guy. Congratulations on making it to the finals! Good luck in there today! Ah… But Choza-san won’t be able to make it to watch today. Sorry.”

“…Minato-sensei,” Kakashi greeted, partly because it was very obvious Guy still had no idea who he had just tried to hit with a rice ball.

“The esteemed Minato-sensei!” Guy parroted.

“I thought none of the jonin were going to be inside with us,” Kakashi continued.

“We’ll all be watching from another room,” Minato explained. “Between you and me, Kakashi, I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to being in there with Orochimaru-sama…”

 “Don’t sound so negative, Minato-sensei! You’ll both be there for the same reason! To watch your students blossoming into powerful shinobi!” Guy piped in, apparently not knowing the meaning of “between you and me, Kakashi,” “Today, watch us with excitement and wonder, because our Kakashi is absolutely amazing, but I’m just as amazing!” Guy flashed a grin, hooking a thumb towards himself. “Actually, just so you know, I’m more amazing than Kakashi! So be sure to watch me, too!”

A sly smile pulled at Kakashi lips. “Is that so?” His eyes met Guy’s confident gaze, eyebrow raised expectantly.

“Yes! It’s so! I’m going to be stronger than everybody, so I have to be stronger than you too!”

“Didn’t think you were still on that pipe dream.”

“Not a pipe dream! I’m serious! Just watch, Kakashi!” Guy grinned and held up his thumb. “I told you, right? I’m a whole new Might Guy!”

“You told me that you’re _taller_ ,” Kakashi teased.

Guy blushed, but tried not to falter, “That’s not what I meant, though! I mean, not just that! Taller and stronger!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi caught the knowing smile on Minato’s face. A wave of embarrassment came over Kakashi as he realized how childish it was to have fun going back and forth with Guy like this. Kakashi cleared his throat and turned around, forcing his smile down in his usual attempt at apathy. More of today’s contestants were already starting to trickle in. Kakashi would rather not make a fool of himself. “We’ll see,” Kakashi said simply.

Guy didn’t react to the boredom suddenly present in Kakashi’s tone. Instead, he grinned, wide and toothy, bouncing happily. “Yes, you will! Everyone will see what the Might family is made of today! I’m going to fight for Papa’s youth!” Guy stood still and added, much more quietly this time. “I’m going to prove it.”

Kakashi blinked. The pointed way that Guy said that reminded Kakashi. He was supposed to break Guy of his childish streak today, and show him… something. How weak and idealistic he was, maybe. Realizing how little he actually knew about whatever was going on in Guy’s head, Kakashi wondered if there was any point in bothering to convince him of anything after all.  “Prove it to _who_ , exactly?"

Guy answered with another vague non-answer, “Everyone, of course!”

“Beast-face is here to bug us already?!” Obito announced his arrival with as much tact as ever.

Kakashi was inwardly glad for the interruption. Dealing with Obito was simpler than Guy. Much, much simpler. “You’re early,” Kakashi mocked, turning to his teammate. “I’m surprised you actually didn’t get lost. No big excuses today?”

Obito blushed bright red, fidgeting and looking from his hand to Rin’s smiling face. That explained it well enough. “Rin picked me up this morning and kept a hold of my hand the whole way,” he admitted bashfully.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. “You couldn’t even make it here on your own?”

Obito’s bashful expression quickly turned into a furious one. “That’s not what I said, and you know it, Bakashi! And anyway, like I was trying to say, what are you doing with Beast-Face? The enemy! Selling us out, I bet!”

“We’re just discussing our excitement for today’s matches! Are you going to be watching as well?” Guy asked.

Obito’s eye twitched in anger. “Watch—I’m fighting in the finals today, too! You and Kakashi aren’t the only ones! Just watch, I’ll kick both your butts! I’ve been training my secret technique all week,” he bragged, putting his hands together in a fire seal. “It’s going to blow you guys away! Right, Rin?”

“Well,” Rin started, looking from Kakashi to Obito and back to Kakashi. “I’m sure you’ve been training just as hard as us this week, right, Kakashi? We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us!”

“ _I_ can’t wait to see you eat my dust,” Obito clarified.

“You two…” Rin tried feebly.

“I’m more than prepared,” Kakashi looked Obito in the eyes and grinned smugly, but shrugged as if it were an innocent, obvious conclusion. “Are you going to be conscious long enough to see me in action?”

“What’d you say?!”

“You two,” Rin tried again, this time in a sharper tone.

“Just that you have no idea what happened in the second round. I don’t think I was eating your dust then…” Kakashi continued matter-of-factly. “It went about how I expected it to, though.”

“Because I was choking, and _that_ weirdo,” Obito pointed at Guy, who had stepped out of the conversation to take this as a chance to fix the bandages along his arms. Guy snapped to attention at the accusation. “Got a really lucky shot in!”

“A lucky shot’s all it took to knock you out?” Kakashi’s eyebrows arched downward in exasperation. “That’s even sadder.”

“As long as you gave it your all, it’s not sad at all! Effort’s never pointless!” Guy argued.

“You stay out of this!” Obito snapped.

“He was on your side,” Kakashi sighed, “for some reason.”

“You two!” This time, another voice joined Rin’s, and all three boys startled to attention.

Kushina glowered from behind Rin, who had her hands on her hips and frowned in a much less intimidating manner.

“Rin is trying to speak! Don’t you dare ignore her for your prideful little bickering!” Kushina ordered. All too familiar with her temper by now, Obito and Kakashi nodded stiffly.

Guy relaxed and grinned, offering Rin’s a thumb up. “Never be afraid to speak your mind! Even if you have to do at the top of your lungs!”

“Um, right,” Rin cleared her throat and focused on Kakashi and Obito.

“We’re here to support each other,” Rin finally said. She took Obito’s hand in one of hers, and Kakashi’s hand in her other, “So, let’s do just that, okay? No matter what happens, we all made it to the third round on our very first try. I think that’s something to celebrate.”

Kakashi was tempted to reiterate that Obito passed the first round due to a vacancy, and Obito and Rin hadn’t done anything substantial to pass the second round, but he could still feel Kushina’s glare at them. Kakashi had some survival instinct, so instead, he stayed silent and just nodded again. Obito did the same.

“Good! That’s what I like to see! Okay, this part is just for you two!” Kushina grinned confidently at her two temporary students. “You were trained by the Red-Hot Habanero herself! Go in there and show them what you’re made of! And Obito?”

Obito stood even straighter somehow. “Yeah, um, Kushina…sensei?”

Kushina smiled dreamily at the title, but she quickly returned to a serious expression. “…Be careful. I better not hear about you getting badly hurt, or you can forget about training under me again,” she told Obito. There was genuine concern instead of anger in her voice, which clearly caught him off guard.

Obito’s stance relaxed and he offered his usual, way-too-confident grin while he fixed his goggles into place. “Of course! It’s me, after all! The man who’ll be the next Hokage, remember?”

Kushina’s smile returned and she nodded. “Okay. You’ll do great, you know. Both of you, give it everything you’ve got!”

Obito and Rin exchanged a happy glance with each other and nodded. “Come on, Obito, let’s go have a look around!” And they were off, Rin dashing into the building and dragging Obito behind her.

Kakashi wondered if she had gotten faster since the last time that he’d seen her.

“They’re such good kids!” Kushina called after she waved them off. “I’m jealous of you Minato! I want to be their full-time teacher! Kushina-sensei… it’s such a nice ring!”

Minato smiled serenely, “Yeah. They’re really getting strong.”

“I guess we’ll just have to hurry up and have a kid of our own so I can train him!”

“Yeah, we… huh?” Minato’s voice hitched in shock.

Guy nodded emphatically at the scene, moved to tears. “They’re overflowing with youth…! Passion! Love, even! I’m going to have a student to train someday too, Kakashi! Maybe even a son!”

“You’re all wrapped up in this stupid romance thing too, Guy?” He expected it from everybody else, but Guy? Somehow, that was less amusing than the others.

“Of course! Someday, I’ll have a son of my own to care for and nurture, once I’ve become a fine young man myself!” Guy bragged, puffing out his chest. “More than anything, I want to be a really good dad someday…” he added, somewhat bashful now. Hearing Guy’s voice get close to a whisper was unusual. “You’re the only one I’ve admitted that to, Kakashi!”

Kakashi hadn’t asked to be trusted with a weightless secret like that, so he didn’t feel too bad about choosing a slightly cruel way to respond. “Women, alcohol, and money are the vices of shinobi. If you get too caught up in those, you’ll definitely die while your score against me is this pitiful. Guess it doesn’t matter to you after all?”

“I’ll die if I touch women or alcohol or money?!” Guy cried out in shock, forgetting all about whispering. “Is that a rule too?”

Kakashi nodded, acting more serious about it than he was, “The three prohibitions for a good shinobi.”

“They’re more of a suggestion than a rule, if you ask me.”

They were interrupted by Guy’s team this time. Genma called out his response as he trailed lazily behind Ebisu on their way to the building. Kakashi noticed that he silently mouthed “Genma, Ebisu,” and pointed at himself and his teammate.

“Genma, Ebisu! You guys made it! I hope you made as good use of your week as I did!”

“We spent the week training diligently and not playing hooky like some people,” Ebisu answered pointedly.

“Someone was playing hooky? Nonsense! No one should let the springtime of their youth pass them by because they want to be lazy!” Guy answered. Either he was playing dumb or he didn’t get that Ebisu was talking about him, but Kakashi wasn’t sure which.

Genma cleared his throat before they could start arguing about it, “Anyway, like I was saying, a healthy respect for the female form isn’t going to kill him. Why are you teaching my teammate weird things? Don’t get drunk in the middle of a mission, and don’t go chasing after pretty spies, and you’ll be just fine, Guy.”

“R-really, the rules are vital, but those three things aren’t rules,” Ebisu interjected, “I mean, there’ll be plenty of times when we’ll have to fight women. Maybe even older ones. We’ll have to face women in whatever way we need to. Or, as you so crassly put it Guy, touch women. So, if it comes to that, we must be willing to win with whatever means necessary, even if that means—”

Genma took off his bandana and used it to gag his bespectacled teammate, which was a small mercy. Kakashi could tell that all the innuendos flew over Guy’s head, though. Probably. Hopefully.

“Scratch that. Just don’t be Ebisu and you’ll be fine, Guy,” Genma whisper-shouted. “Hey, you know what’s a way better topic to talk about? Competition. If you had to choose one person here, who do you guys think you’d wanna fight?”

“I want to fight Kakashi!” Guy answered immediately. “I look forward to our showdown today! It’ll be great! This is going to be the turning point for our rivalry!”

Genma nodded while Ebisu angrily took the bandana from around his mouth. “You’ll just lose against him like you always do! Obviously, we need to figure out who we stand a chance of beating! For you, that’s likely to be no one. For Genma, a long-range form of attack would do well against people like Raido or Asuma. As for me… I-I mean, well…” Ebisu blushed red and adjusted his glasses nervously. He was quite literally drooling. “I guess if I had to choose… I certainly wouldn’t mind a _very_ close-quarter combat match with one of the girls.”

“I agree!” Guy added emphatically, giving his teammate a proud pat on the back. “A close-quarter combat match is always exciting, the reflexes and power and instinct you have go head-to-head with your opponent in an honest test of skill! I’m sure the girls are just as skilled at it! I need more practice against them! Are you finally seeing the merits of taijutsu, Ebisu? I’d be happy to tutor you, too!”

“See? No need to tell Guy that weird stuff, Ebisu’s already on the path of trying his hardest to corrupt the both of us. If Ebisu doesn’t break him, nothing will,” Genma quipped, almost mock-apologetically, to Kakashi.

“I am a ninja of the highest caliber and I am nothing like you describe me! I’m not trying to break or corrupt any of you!” Ebisu argued. Under his breath, he muttered, “Maybe I’d be interested in trying if there was a single girl on our team…”

Genma seemed to have to hesitate to choose between sacrificing his bandana and ignoring the comment. He chose the latter and shook his cloth off. “Anyway. We do need to borrow our teammate again, if you’d let us, Kakashi…?”

“This isn’t a team competition. You’re just as likely to fight Guy as anyone else. You don’t need to exchange strategies.”

Genma shrugged. “Well whatever we do, we don’t have all day to hang around outside. Besides, I should make sure you didn’t do anything to get into his head before the matches start, right?”

“Kakashi would never! He might leave me to drown in a river, but he’d never try to brainwash me! He is still my eternal rival, and I trust him!” Guy declared. “Still… We should head in together as a team, I agree. Go on ahead and I’ll catch up really, really quickly!”

Genma shrugged again. “Alright then. You heard the kid, let’s go, Ebisu.”

“You better not be too late and end up disqualified, Guy, it’d be an embarrassment to our team.”

“I’ll be fast!” Guy yelled, waving after them.

“Your team is more annoying than mine,” Kakashi muttered.

He turned his glance towards Kakashi, leaning forward to stare right into his eyes. “Kakashi!”

Kakashi frowned. “Your _entire_ team is more annoying than mine.”

Guy laughed. “Yesterday was just what I needed! So… thank you! For that!” His voice is just a hair above a whisper. An almost-whisper from Guy still felt weird. The sincerity of the unusually small smile on Guy’s face was weird too. “I’m happy you’re feeling better, Kakashi.”

Returning to his usual volume and over-the-top mannerisms, Guy shouted, “Yosh! Today’s more than a test of our abilities! We’ll test our wills too! I won’t lose!”

Kakashi watched as Guy caught up with his teammates and trailed ahead of them. “We should do a team cheer to pump us up!” Guy declared, sticking a fist into the air.

“I’d rather die…”

“Guy, your bandages are tied loose.”

“Ah, that’s…”

Their voices trailed off as the three of them disappeared behind the doors of the building.

“You’re in a good mood today, Kakashi,” Minato said, now that it was just the two of them. Kushina had evidently left already.

“I slept well,” Kakashi answered curtly. It was a meant to be a detached half-truth, but hearing himself say it, it sounded far too honest. He had slept well. Very well. He remembered how easy it was for him to fall asleep in the gentle warmth of Guy’s rough arms, and against the steady beating of Guy’s heart. Kakashi felt a warmth rising to his cheeks and a familiar sickness in his stomach, but he forced both back down.

“I’m well-rested. Well-prepared. This will be as easy as the second round was. I’m in a good mood because I know I’ll win. I’ll be a chunin, and Obito will officially have to listen to me for once,” Kakashi said, his voice even and his tone as apathetic as always, even though the fact that he was searching for too many answers already gave himself away.

Mercifully, Minato didn’t press the issue.

“Well… I’m glad. Most importantly, it’s just like Kushina said, alright? The most important thing is that you stay cautious and be safe. You’re not perfect, but you’re talented, Kakashi. You’ve proven that without a doubt.” Minato’s smiled softened. “You and the team are my pride and joy.”

Kakashi stepped out of Minato’s reach, “I’m going to win this, so I don’t need any comforting words like that.” Kakashi turned around and said, in lieu of a goodbye, “I should head in, too.”

“I won’t say ‘good luck’ then. How about… Give ‘em hell!” Minato called after him, in his best imitation of Kushina’s cheerful tone.

Inside the building, instead of everyone waiting together in a crowded venue, the others had already sectioned into their little cliques and stood around the railing on the stands. When Kakashi got to the railing and stood next to Obito, he could see that a very basic arena was below them.

“Not as fancy as I expected the finals of my chunin exams to be,” Obito grumbled in disappointment.

Kakashi silently watched as the proctor took the stage.

“Genin brats! Don’t get cocky just because you made it this far! The final assessment will be one-on-one battles,” called the proctor, scowling out into the crowd of genin. His shoulders were squared and his gaze was sharp –he was clearly trying to come off as intimidating and demanding. Kakashi just scowled back. After today he wouldn’t think about this, or those chunin, anymore.

“The matchups will be chosen at random and you will be expected to perform at chunin level. This is tournament style, but even if you’re the last one remaining, you may not be chosen as a chunin! This is about whether or not you deserve it! The rules are simple: you come down to the arena when your name appears on that screen, and the fight goes on until I call the match. Anything goes!”

Kakashi didn’t expect anything, but he glanced over at Guy. Guy, who was grinning at Genma and had just tied his bandana over his head to mimic him. Not a care in the world.

In spite of himself, Kakashi cracked a smile. Guy really was Guy.

“Well then, let’s begin!” The proctor gestured upwards, and the first pair of names flashed on the screen.

_Kakashi Hatake_

_vs_

_Genma Shiranui_

“Genma! You’re in the very first battle!” Kakashi could hear Guy from here.

“So unfair! Why’s Bakashi get to go first?! I wanted to—!” Obito was actually screaming right in Kakashi’s ear. Kakashi shot him a glare, and Obito pouted, glaring at the younger boy in return. When that failed to get a proper reaction, he threw his hands behind his head and turned away showily. “Hmph! Well, I’m not going to root for you!”

“I really don’t care if you cheer or not,” Kakashi said bluntly, then flickered down to the arena.

Genma was much slower to come down the stairs and take his spot opposite Kakashi. He let out a grunt of annoyance as he stretched for a moment, glancing up towards the stands. Genma clicked his tongue. “I can never have any luck…” he complained as he straightened up, hands in his pockets.

“Rival!” Guy yelled as he waved with both his hands, “We still have to have our fight, so don’t you dare lose before then! Genma, you do your best too!”

Genma laughed. “It sounds like I lost already.” He was surprisingly defeatist for a teammate of Guy’s. “Oh well. Let’s get this over with. We both know I’m out of my league here. This’ll be quick, I can promise you that.”

“If you’re ready,” the proctor prompted, in the same way someone might clear their throat. For the most part, Kakashi was just going to ignore that he was still there.

“Say, you fighting to impress Guy? Intimidate him or something? I think I’m starting to get it.” Kakashi was going to ignore everything Genma was saying as well.

“Begin!”

As soon as the flag was waved, Kakashi began on the offensive. Genma excelled in nothing except precision and long-distance combat. The best way to handle an opponent like that was to rush him.

If Genma was caught off guard by that, it didn’t show.

Despite his lack of enthusiasm, Genma moved like he really knew what he was doing. He easily blocked Kakashi’s first swing, and deftly blocked his quick second and third hits as well. It wasn’t a feat of strength so much as it was a show of reflexes and timing. He brushed the attacks off on the flat edge of his kunai, never trying to bear the brunt of Kakashi’s blows or lessen his momentum the way Guy did when they fought.

“Oh.” Genma chuckled, “You’re actually slower than Guy, huh…?”

Kakashi grabbed the hilt of his sword, prompting Genma to flicker back in a puff of smoke. He hadn’t withdrawn very far, but Kakashi tried to close the distance before Genma had a chance to use it to his advantage.

Genma reacted just before Kakashi reached him, deflecting Kakashi’s sword and throwing off Kakashi’s stance with just his senbon. Evidently, he kept it in his mouth for a reason.

“You might be a little bit weaker, too…” It sounded more like a taunt than a simple observation, especially as Genma’s grin widened with no senbon to hold in place anymore.  Genma sidestepped a kick that was aimed at his chest, followed by a broad swipe of his sword.

Not quite able to evade or deflect it this time, Genma blocked with his kunai. The blade clashed against his, pushing him back, and Genma slid backwards in retreat. Kakashi prepared to charge at him again, but Genma suddenly dropped his weapon and relaxed his stance.

“I give.”

Kakashi skidded to a stop mid-swing. He narrowed his eyes, but Genma simply held his arms up in surrender, disarmed and evidently disinterested in continuing.

“I give up, I forfeit. You win, Kakashi.” Genma glanced over at the proctor, “You can call the match now.”

“Huh—uh,” the proctor fumbled out in surprise, nearly dropping his flags. “The winner is Kakashi Hatake!”

The declaration was met with confused silence from the small crowd. Genma shrugged and started to clap his hands, cheering out in a very pointed, deadpan way, “Woo-hoo, Kakashi Hatake, legendary shinobi, that was amazing.”

Despite his own lack of enthusiasm, the crowd finally began to cheer and clap as well.

“Well, that went about how I thought it would, anyway,” Genma admitted, pulling a new senbon out of his pouch and spinning it between his fingers idly. He glanced up at the stands again. Guy was openly shocked, and Ebisu shook his head, making Genma suck in a breath of air in a jovial smile. “They’re going to chew me out.”

Genma turned his back to his opponent and started on his way back up to the stands. Kakashi finally returned his sword to its sheath. As soon as he teleported back to the stands, he was greeted by his teammate’s disappointment.

“What was that? Did he just give up? Lame,” Obito muttered.

“I think you were amazing out there, Kakashi!” Rin said, obviously trying to reassure him. Kakashi sighed. He won, whether it was an interesting match or not.

Obito pushed his way between Kakashi and Rin. “I’ll be more amazing, Rin! And I’ll be next! Just watch!”

Obito watched the board excitedly as he waited for the next pair to be chosen. “Come on, me, me… Not me?!” Obito screamed in frustration, as if he could argue with the machine.

Kakashi finally looked up to see who the two not-Obito people were.

_Kurenai Yuhi_

_vs_

_Hoheto Hyuuga_

“It’s Kurenai’s turn,” Rin said, smiling. “She’s a good friend of mine! Will you guys cheer for her with me?”

“Of course, Rin! I’ll cheer at the top of my lungs!” Obito promised. To illustrate how serious he was, he started before the two had even made it down to the arena. “Kurenai! Kick butt! Go, fight, win!”

“Ah, but… who’s Hoheto?” Rin asked quietly.

“One of Orochimaru’s students.” Kakashi recognized the name as one of Anko’s partners.

Obito’s cheering stopped suddenly. “—One of the legendary sannin’s students?!” Obito leaned close to Kakashi, apparently so he could whisper without Rin hearing him. “Hey, does Kurenai really stand a chance against a Hyuuga who was taught by that guy…? I mean, the Hyuuga’s not as strong as the Uchiha clan, but they’re pretty big, you know?”

“She’s—”

“Ah!” Obito pressed his hand against where he guessed Kakashi’s mouth was under the mask in an obnoxious attempt to quiet him. “Not so loud! That’s Rin’s friend! Don’t you dare dampen her spirits, Bakashi!” Obito hissed.

Kakashi’s narrowed his eyes and pulled Obito’s hand away. More quietly, he continued, “She’s at a disadvantage just from who she’s facing. The Byakugan should be more than capable of seeing through her genjutsu.”

Obito’s frowned and folded his arms over his chest. “Yeah, yeah, good point. I mean, a Sharingan could do it better, but still… yeah, I guess you have a point, us noble clans are pretty tough,” he muttered. “But! Kurenai’s Rin’s friend, and if me and Rin know anything, it’s that underdogs like us are going to beat the pants off of smug geniuses like you and that Hyuuga kid!” he declared with a grin. “Kurenai! You can do it!”

Rin’s smile returned as she joined in. “Kurenai! Do your best!”

Kurenai smiled and glanced up at Rin and Obito, waving up at them.

“K—Kurenai! You can do it!”

“Go, Kurenai! Give ‘em hell!”

Kakashi could hear her two teammates cheering now, apparently hoping she would smile up at them as well. Kurenai’s focus was fully on her opponent now, though.

Hoheto was a boy with a sharp glare and severe expression, but the Hyuuga weren’t known as a warm and friendly clan in any case. As soon as the match was called to behind, his large white eyes became distinct and focused, and the veins near his temple bulged.

Beside Kakashi, Obito grimaced, practically inching to hide behind Rin. “That looks painful…”

“It sounds like you’re jealous because you can’t activate your own clan ability,” Kakashi muttered. The way Obito glared at him after that, it almost looked like he was seriously trying to activate his sharingan then and there.

Down in the arena, Kurenai had been the first to charge forward, weaving through several hand seals quickly. She leapt forward to tackle Hoheto, locking eyes with him. Kakashi could sense her chakra flare up. She was trying to end this quickly.

Unaffected, the Hyuuga shoved a flat hand against Kurenai’s chest and sent her flying, but not far –not out of his range. Thrown off and still in the air, Kurenai was all but helpless to the rapid barrage of attacks.

When Kurenai’s feet finally touched the ground, she ducked to dodge a hit and kicked upwards, aiming for his arm.

This time, her first strike connected, and then the second, then more and more as the Hyuuga seemed to be forced to take a more defensive role now. She forced him to back up against the wall and Kurenai held him to it, clearly trying for another genjutsu, but he slammed his hand against – _into_ her chest again. She was sent flying with much more force this time. From the corner of his eye, Kakashi could see Rin wince at seeing how much blood that forced her friend to cough up.

“It doesn’t matter how many times to try that. I see right through your genjutsu,” said Hoheto, his gaze becoming sharper somehow as he rushed forward again. “I see right through you.”

Kurenai hissed and staggered to her feet. Her stance was as shaky as her breath, she raised her arms to defend herself, though it did little against his continued onslaught.

“He doesn’t even look like he hits very hard. What’s going on?” Obito complained.

“The Hyuuga clan is famous for their ability to injure internal organs and disrupt chakra flow, from what I’ve read,” Kakashi answered. “If he cleanly hits all her chakra points, there won’t be any option left but for her to give up.”

Rin frowned. “Kurenai must be in so much pain right now…”

Kakashi wasn’t the medical ninja in his squad, but even he could see how deep the blows were hitting by the time the red marks actually started appearing on her bare arms. She made attempts to fight back, but Hoheto had the advantage in that he didn’t have to hit hard or throw more than a finger into it when he countered. She feinted and twisted so the hits were probably not as precise as clean as Hoheto was trying to make them –Kurenai had speed, Kakashi would admit that much—but the damage was still severe and getting worse. The cheering from the other genin had quieted down, and everyone was silent with sympathy for the popular genin, except for Anko, whose lone cheers and praises for her teammate echoed out.

Rin’s frown deepened. “Kurenai…”

“That’s not true at all!” Guy’s distinctive voice drowned out Anko’s easily. “He can’t see who you are! He can’t tell you who you are! He wasn’t even in our class! Why are you looking at it so straightforwardly? Kurenai, you’re strong and pretty and have a really good technique! I know, ‘cause Ebisu—” he was cut off by the sound of Guy loudly choking out as he was strangled by someone.

“He was going to say that Ebisu said girls are good at close combat,” Genma called nonchalantly.

Kakashi leaned his head against the railing and groaned. Guy was ridiculous. Worse than Obito. He was so ridiculous and obnoxious, and Kakashi scolded himself for having to force down a smile because of that idiot. He shook his head. His focus should be on the match. One of them was going to move on the next round.

Hoheto hadn’t let up once during Guy’s display, and Kurenai’s arms were red with bruises. Despite that, Kurenai kept her gaze forward, and slowly, a smile appeared on her face as she caught her breath. “There’s a lot more to me than you can see, even with those eyes! I promise you that.”

Hoheto laughed, then hardened his gaze again.

Unlike the first round, this one was definitely not going to end with a mere forfeit on either side. They both looked too prideful for that.

Before Kurenai even had a chance to respond, Hoheto had come at her with the next attack. She had barely dodged it when she felt him coming in with another one.

Little by little, as the fight between them went on, Kakashi was getting annoyed with her lack of skill. The weight of her previous exhausted state was clearly catching up to her and affecting her moves. This couldn’t feasibly continue much longer. Still, she wouldn't back down.

"Why haven’t you given up yet? You must enjoy being humiliated." Hoheto asked slightly raising his voice and, not backing down with his attacks. Kurenai was barely keeping up. For every one hit that she barely managed to get, Hoheto came back with three more hits. He was more agile than her, which only increased her chances of dodging any of the attacks she made. She couldn't even formulate a plan of attack, and it was getting clearer by the second how weak she must be.

It was a kick to the side that knocked her off her feet this time. Kurenai flew and hit the wall again, but this time there was no sound from the impact she made. In fact, she went through the wall. Hoheto’s hits must not have been very precise if she could still use techniques, but it was a relatively simple one.

Hoheto immediately looked down, but Kurenai was already raising back up from the floor. She grabbed Hoheto’s long ponytail, yanking it so hard that the Hyuuga wince in pain. She planted her feet firmly on the ground and used the leverage throw him up. She unwrapped the bandages from around her arm and vanished, sinking into the floor.

This time, she reappeared from the ceiling, quickly launching herself forward towards Hoheto’s back. Hoheto could see her, and kicked his legs up at her to try to throw off her trajectory, if nothing else. She used her undone bandages like ropes, tangling them around his legs with a single, skillful flick of her wrist.

In the few seconds it took for them to finally fall back to the ground, Kurenai had tightly bound up both Hoheto’s arms and his legs behind his back.

She poured what little chakra she could still channel into the binds, fortifying them so that cloth was like steel. Hoheto struggled in vein against the binds, stuck on his front and unable to do much more than roll slightly from side to side. Kurenai’s chest still heaved and her bruises colored her skin red and black and blue, but her opponent, who barely had a scratch on him, couldn’t move despite his best efforts, and didn’t seem to have any other way or continuing the fight.

The proctor still looked around in confusion, as if he expected the girl the jump out from some other surface despite being right in front of him. But she didn’t, and the scene before him was real. He finally cleared his throat. “The winner of the match is Kurenai Yuhi!”

The once-quiet crowd burst into cheers, chanting out Kurenai’s name. Kurenai grinned and looked up at them.

“Kurenai, you were great out there!” Rin was the first to greet her when she returned, running to her friend and wrapping her up in a tight hug. “You’re so cool!”

Kurenai lifted Rin up and spun her around in the hug. “That was so close! I’ve never fought anyone like that before.”

Raido nervously contemplated joining either the hug or the conversation, while Asuma leaned against the wall, apparently disinterested.

“I’ll heal your wounds from the fight. Kakashi said he did something to your chakra flow…” Rin looked her friend up and down, noting all her fresh bruises.

“Yeah. The Hyuuga clan is tough,” Kurenai sighed out, finally letting go of Rin and collapsing to lay against the wall. Rin knelt down and placed glowing hands on Kurenai’s arms.

“Aha! She won! You said she had a disadvantage, but she won! Things are looking up for us little guys, Bakashi!” Obito bragged. Kakashi didn’t see a point in arguing that Obito called himself a little guy and an elite Uchiha clan member at the same time. “In fact, I can feel it! The next match is going to be me!”

Obito’s eyes fixated on the board again. Kakashi followed his gaze. The next names slowly appeared on the screen.

_Rin Nohara_

_vs_

_Raido Namiashi_

“Ooooh! Rin, here’s your chance! This is your moment! Go kick butt!” Obito grinned excitedly, bouncing as he looked to Rin.

Rin exchanged a cryptic look with Kurenai first, and Raido looked disappointed. Asuma voiced the question neither of them was going to say, “So who do you want to root for, Kurenai?”

Raido gritted his teeth nervously, but Rin just put her hands on her hips and nodded her head. “Doesn’t matter! Either way, I’ll do Kushina-sensei proud!” She aimed a smile in Kakashi’s direction. “My own team will wish me luck?” she asked hopefully.

Kakashi shrugged noncommittally, earning another glare from Obito that he ignored. “It’s not about luck.”

“Right!” Rin agreed, not letting it get her down. “I wish us both ‘good luck’ anyway, Raido! Let’s go.” She shot an apologetic look at Kurenai, putting her hands together in a steeple and promising, “Win or lose, I’ll heal you right up after this match!”

Rin waved and ran down the stairs, Raido following close behind her with a frown. Kakashi’s eyes followed Kurenai as she went toward the part of the platform where Guy his team stood.

“Might Guy, right?”

Guy stared at her, clearly not sure who she was. He didn’t have to ask though, because Ebisu sputtered out, “K-K-Kurenai…!”

“Kurenai,” Guy parroted. He jumped to his feet, a proud grin plastered on his face. “You were incredible out there, Kurenai! Your taijutsu is impressive, and that was really quick thinking! I learned a lot from you! I can see why you’re earned Ebisu’s a—”

Ebisu grabbed Guy again and put him in another headlock. Ebisu was pretty weak, and now that he was looking at them, it was pretty clear that Guy was all but letting Ebisu manhandle him without putting up any actual resistance.

“Admiration, he was going to say admiration,” Genma interjected, but his eyes were on the fight happening below.

Kurenai laughed quietly, then winced. Apparently, she was in a bit too much pain for that still. “Thanks for yelling at me, Guy. That was really sweet of you. It really woke me up.”

“Hey,” Obito leaned in front of Kakashi, and Kakashi was reminded that Guy wasn’t the only one who still had yet to learn about personal space. “Stop spacing out and watch Rin’s fight! Rin’s prettier than Kurenai, you know! Nicer, too! Sweeter… stronger! So, don’t ignore her fight!” he demanded.

Kakashi rolled his eyes and turned back toward the arena, rested his chin in his hand. He didn’t expect anything very extraordinary out of either of them.

Rin and Raido’s match had already started.

Raido had a long, ebony katana. It looked weighted, and too large for him. Something that was passed down from a family member, perhaps. Something he’d have to grow into. But nothing in Raido’s stance or movements would show that it wasn’t made for him. He was graceful, precise. And it was easily long enough that nothing in Rin’s pouch would be suitable to parry it, unless she was willing to sacrifice a hand.

Rin didn’t excel at things that required her to be particularly close to her opponent anyway. Seeing her fight not as support for Obito was new, but dodging and keeping her distance was something that came natural to her by now, as the medic of their team.

The blade nicked her, barely breaking the skin, but she winced and tumbled. She rolled and righted herself back to a steady stance, but arm that had been cut looked like it went slack.

Raido positioned his blade to his side, his knuckles shifting as his grip tightened and loosened.

“Must be poison,” Kakashi said quietly.

“He poisoned her?!” Obito whispered worriedly. “Oh no! What are we going to do? We can’t heal! –Can you heal?”

“She can heal herself,” Kakashi pointed out.

“Oh. Right. Right, right. Rin’s strong, she can do this.”

As if responding to Obito’s comment, she cast a healing jutsu on herself, bringing feeling back to her legs and air to her lungs for long enough for her to decide on her next strategy. Rin manually forced her injured arm up long enough to weave through the hand seals she needed to deploy two shadow clones in a puff of smoke. The three Rins scattered so that it was difficult to tell which of them was the real one.

Raido seemed content to stand back and wait for them to come to him so he could determine the real one from the clones, but all three of them simultaneously threw a kunai with a tag. Raido easily leaped out of the blade’s paths.

“Water Release: Surfing Strike!” Each Rin weaved a single tiger seal, waves of water crashed around each of their feet. Between the three of them, there was enough water to cover the floor of the arena up past Raido’s knees.

Raido jumped again, landing firmly on the surface of the water and taking a defensive stance as Rin and her clones cycled around him. Rin rode the water as it rolled in waves.

“Hey, Kakashi, which one’s the real Rin?” Obito whispered.

Kakashi rolled his eyes and ignored him.

“Kakashi, how long can someone hold their breath? It’s been a while!” Guy asked.

Obito flailed and fell back in surprise. “You…! Go stick with your own team and stop appearing out of nowhere!”

Guy grinned and held up his thumb. “Genma and Ebisu don’t mind!”

One of the Rins prepared a pair of kunai and the water under her roared up to rush towards Raido. He faced the crashing waves head-on and swung his sword as soon as she was in range, long before her kunai could have reached him. The blade sliced across her chest, and the Rin vanished, dropping the kunai that vanished under the water surface.

“Not that one, then…” Obito muttered.

“What’s not that one?” Guy asked.

“I’m looking for the real Rin, my favorite teammate. Go back to your teammates, Beast-face,” Obito shoved Guy.

Guy just looked at him confusedly again. Obito groaned and looked back down to the arena.

The second Rin attacked in much the same way as the first, and she vanished when Raido’s black sword slash through her abdomen. “So, you’re the real one,” Raido said, quickly turning and throwing the sword at her.

It pierced through her chest, and the third Rin vanished in a puff of smoke, visibly shocking Raido. The water cleared up with the last Rin’s disappearance, revealing a soaked Rin that had been holding her breath underneath. She must have made three clones and simply stayed hidden in the smoke that came from them. She smiled and lifted up a hand.

“Activate!”

Hidden tags that she had placed all around Raido while he was distracted with the water and the clones suddenly started to glow, along with the tags hanging off the kunai her clones had thrown. Before Raido could move, the tags below his feet detonated, caving in the ground under him and knocking him into the air. He fell into the newly made hole among the rubble.

Rin panted heavily as the proctor sheepishly walked over to look down into the hole. “Namiashi is unconscious and unable to continue,” he announced while Rin healed the cut on her arm. Kakashi inched to the side away from Obito in preparation. “The winner of the match is Rin Nohara!”

“Riiiiin! Nice one!” Obito screamed at the top of his lungs, leaning so far, he looked like he was going to fall into that hole together with Raido.

Rin hauled Raido out of the hole, slinging his arm over her shoulder. With her free hand, she waved up at her team.

“Six minutes and thirty-four seconds!” Guy said, looking at Kakashi incredulously. “She broke my record! Your team really is something else…! I’m going to have to get back to training as soon as we finish this!” Guy leaned against the rail and watched as the arena was straightened back up. “Everybody’s doing so well. Genma, too. I’m jealous, I want to hurry up and get to fight, too! You think it’ll be me and you for this next one?”

Kakashi shrugged. The arena had to be fixed back up before the next match can begin.

“Rin!” Obito waved and ran to meet Rin on her way up, helping her carry Raido up, although he was already starting to wake up by then. She set Raido against the wall gently.

“You held your breath for an impressive time! Your strategy was brilliant!” Guy said. “Right Kakashi?”

“…You were clever, Rin,” Kakashi offered. “That was a good strategy.”

Rin blushed, surprised at Kakashi’s praise, but tried for a very Kushina-like grin and pose. “Of course! I worked hard this week, too, you know!” she said, even adopting Kushina’s odd catchphrase. “And now, I can help you like I promised,” Rin added, turning to Kurenai. Kurenai seemed ready to argue that she was fine, but Rin eased her friend onto the floor and rested her head in her lap. “We still have more fights ahead of us. I’m sure this’ll help,” Rin said in a quiet voice. Her fingers shifted through Kurenai’s hair until they could rest on Kurenai’s temples. Kurenai let out a deep sigh as Rin’s healing jutsu poured through her body.

“She’s so cool…” Obito swooned.

“She is! Being there to help one’s friends is so youthful!” Guy agreed. Obito shot a glare at him for interjecting, but Guy looked to Kakashi. “If anything happens to you, I’ll be there for you too, Kakashi! My whole team has been trying to learn healing jutsu too!”

“Hm… Think I’ll pass,” Kakashi said.

“You doubt my abilities, huh! Once you see me in action today, you’ll change your mind for sure! And I’ll get to show that off… now!” Guy pointed at the screen just as it started up.

_Anko Mitarashi_

_vs_

_Ebisu_

The power of optimistic suggestion was apparently useless on a screen.

“Ah! That’s my Ebisu, isn’t it!” Guy didn’t seem disappointed by the matchup at all. “You can do it, Ebisu! We believe in you! Show them how great you are!” Guy called, waving with both his arms. Guy leaned further over the railing, and Kakashi grabbed him by the headband tied around the waist just before he would have fallen down and landed on his teammate.

Ebisu gave a small bow to his opponent and then took his stance, traditional, rigid, and obvious. He seemed less like a teammate of Guy’s than Genma had.

In response, Anko licked the edge of her kunai, and Ebisu turned bright red.

“Begin.”

Ebisu adjusted his glasses, waiting for the moment of attack. Anko stood solidly, several feet away with the kunai still held up to her lips. They both waited there for a breath, then two, and then—

Almost simultaneously, their hands flew through several different seals, then cupped around their mouths. They breathed out roaring streams of flames from their mouths. Ebisu’s was narrow and focused, while Anko’s was wide, all-encompassing, enough to make the proctor need to jump back and put some distance between himself and the fight. Ebisu’s flames broke Anko’s around him, leaving them to curl around and miss him so he suffered little more than a little sweat.

Anko ran forward while she kept spewing flames, jumping out from the flames, catching Ebisu by surprise.

Ebisu scrambled back, practically choking on his own flames from the shock.

Anko feinted a swing, and Ebisu backed up. He rushed through a water release, throwing all the chakra he could summon at Anko. Tossing attacks haphazardly wasn’t efficient, but Ebisu seemed to be panicking. While Anko was still dazed from that, Ebisu attacked, packing all her strength into a punch in her gut.

Ebisu wasn’t strong enough to stagger her with a punch, so Anko fought back, of course, and she fought hard. Her punches actually did send him staggering and falling back.

Clumsily, he channeled the residual chakra still in his fingertips into a fireball point blank. Anko nearly fell back to dodge that, but when Ebisu swung his kunai again, it connected, piercing a deep cut into the skin of her thigh.

She landed on her hands and kicked her feet up to knock the kunai out of Ebisu’s hand. She quickly righted herself back to her feet, and now small snakes slithered from her sleeves to her hands. She reached for Ebisu, and the snakes grabbed a hold his neck long before her hands had to reach it. Snakes wrapped around Ebisu as he writhed frantically, and fangs gnashed against his neck and face.

He attempted to ram himself into her, and when that proved unsuccessful, instead he tried to push the snakes off of him. When that didn’t work, he dug his elbows into her rib cage. Anko winced slightly with each blow, but she easily endured.

It wasn’t much longer until his movements slowed and eventually stilled. He went slack and the small snakes retreated back up Anko’s arms as she pulled out a kunai. With a jeer stretched across her lips, she raised her blade over her head and brought it down on him.

Guy was there in under a second, so fast that Kakashi had registered the sound of blade cutting flesh before he’d registered that it was Guy’s instead of Ebisu’s. Guy held the blade of Anko’s kunai in one hand and her wrist in his other.

“That idiot…” Kakashi muttered under his breath.

The kunai shattered under Guy’s hold, freeing his hand to grab her other one when she brought it up, neatly dodging the needles between her fingers and trapping them so she couldn’t do anything else.

“Oh… now that’s impressive,” Anko huffed between clenched teeth.

Guy’s answered with an impassive glare. “How could you look down on a person who’s fought his hardest and given it everything he had?! Ebisu’s already unconscious! The match is over!”

“Unlike _interference_ , killing’s not against the rules. I didn’t do anything wrong,” Anko teased with a purposefully and painfully condescending smirk on his face. Her arms shook against Guy’s hold, but Guy didn’t budge. “You have to be a real idiot to get in between a huntress and her prey. Are you that anxious to die, too?”

“This isn’t about hunters or prey! We’ll all be comrades on the battlefield someday! This match is already over!”

Anko laughed. “You’re really soft for a kid aiming for chunin! I’ll teach you something good! This test is about weeding out the weak and coming out on top!”

“I don’t care! Ebisu is my teammate! He’s my friend!”

The quiet sound of the hollow impact of a punch against Guy’s cheek seemed like it echoed far more than the sound of Guy’s voice had just a second prior. Guy’s eyes widened.

“Break it up. Don’t get involved until you’re called down to fight! Try and pull something like that again and you’ll be disqualified before you even have your own fight!” the proctor barked. “We don’t need some kid playing ninja in the middle of the real exams, waste of my time…”

Guy stopped, and for a second, he was still and quiet, the harsh expression vanishing from his face to be replaced by one of child-like confusion, while the proctor shook his own wrist like the punch hurt his hands. Kakashi wondered if he was about to start crying, but Guy finally broke the silence himself – “Do I know you?”

The room was filled with scattered muttering and laughter.

Genma leapt down before it went any further. “Genma Shiranui. Their teammate,” he announced to the proctor, although Kakashi was pretty sure by now that it was solely for Guy’s benefit.

“Guy, can you carry Ebisu up to the stands for me? I need to take a look at him,” Genma said, standing between Guy and the proctor. Guy grimaced, still staring at the proctor intently.

Genma set a hand on Guy’s head and whispered something in his ear that Kakashi couldn’t quite make out. Whatever he’d said, it made Guy grin and nod, seeming suddenly oblivious to the laughter or the bruise on his face or whatever he had just realized.

“Oh! Right, of course, my dear teammate! I’m on it!” Guy lifted Ebisu up, carrying him all the way into the stands in a single powerful leap. Unusually motivated, Genma followed after Guy just as quickly.

“What was that about?” Obito asked, arching an eyebrow. “I feel like I’m missing something here.”

“Aren’t you always?” Kakashi said.

“You little—?!”

“Kakashi!” As usual, Guy interrupted.

Unlike usual, Guy called from a distance, quiet and glancing off to the side. “…I! I have a question I need to ask you in private!”

Kakashi glanced down to the arena. The next match had just started: Asuma and one of Orochimaru’s students. It looked like the battle was going to continue for a while, but Kakashi could guess where it would go from here. “Fine.”

Glancing off to the side, Kakashi made a motion for him to follow. Guy trailed behind him. The platform was circular, but most of the teams were huddled up against the rail together, so finding an empty spot wasn’t difficult.

“What’s your question?” Kakashi asked, turning around and staring at Guy with bored, half-lidded eyes.

“That is, uh… A long time ago, there were two guys who insulted my dad right to his face! I tried to get them back for it, and you… were there,” Guy fidgeted restlessly. “The proctor down there. He was the taller one of those two guys, wasn’t he?” Guy finally asked.

 “You recognize him _now_?”

“So, it is!”

Kakashi arched his eyebrows, and Guy seemed to take the hint.

Guy mimed a punch into the air as he explained, “I recognized the way he threw his punch! Straight, with a sloppy stance, and he shifts his weight in a really specific way and puts way too much –It’s a really specific kind of bad form,” Guy explained. He rubbed the reddening bruise on his cheek. “I just needed to be sure. And now I am! Thank you for answering, sorry for bothering you with a silly question!”

Guy jumped up onto the railing, prepared to rush back in, apparently.

Kakashi caught Guy’s wrist in an easy grasp. It was more to make a point than to physically hold Guy back –if Guy wanted too, he could break free pretty easily. “Wait.”

Guy stopped obediently and looked back at Kakashi. Kakashi stared back for a moment as he tried to think of why he stopped Guy in the first place. He’d wanted Guy to notice and do something for a while now, but it looked like Guy would always manage to have the worst timing. He couldn’t do anything but act out emotionally, too. He was too much like the worst parts of Sakumo. “…What’s your plan?”

The muscles in Guy’s wrist tightened as he clenched his hands into fists. “Make him apologize for everything he said to Papa! Hit him twenty times! I made that self-rule to myself!”

“And the other guy?”

“I’ll find him, too! They both insulted my papa!”

“You’ll wait until he punches you again too? Or you can pick him up out of a crowd?”

Guy’s muscles tightened more.

“If you go try and start a fight right now, all you’ll do is be disqualified, whether you win or not. Do you have a plan for dealing with the fallout of attacking your assigned superior during the finals of the exams out of a grudge, where everyone’s going to see you?”

“It’s not like I’m going to…” Guy trailed off and changed the subject. “I know Papa would rather I just let it go, and I do now, but I already made this self-rule! I don’t care if I’m dumb, I’m still mad! I really want to prove it to them! How much I’ve grown! And…” Guy’s fist was clutched so tightly that his arm was practically trembling now. “I want to prove it to you. The you who saved me and said you couldn’t believe I couldn’t do a single thing when people were insulting my papa. The me who couldn’t do anything!”

“Are you that sore about me helping you that one time?”

Guy shook his head. “If I can prove I’m not the same kid I was back then, then I’ll prove that we can help each other! If I can’t even do that, I can’t protect Papa’s youth!”

“Going down there and making an even bigger fool of yourself than you already have isn’t going to do either of those. For one thing, that’s only one guy,” Kakashi answered, “And if all it took was that, I fought them for you already.”

“You’re a genius, though! I have to prove—”

“That your _dad_ is good enough.” Guy bristled for a second, but finally breathed out and relaxed his muscles slightly. Kakashi continued, “You think losing a fight to you is going to do anything for your dad’s reputation? Make it worse, maybe, if you want them to laugh about you being stronger than Duy.”

Guy sighed heavily, ending with a pout that made his round face look even rounder and younger again. “I know, Rival. I should be mature and do nothing. Kill my emotions. Right?” Guy asked, surprisingly serious about the idea. “I’m not really great at all those rules yet…”

Kakashi’s eyes crinkled in mischief, “We can do better than that, I think.”

That caught Guy by surprise.

Guy’s pull fully relaxed. Kakashi released his wrist, and instead of taking the chance to jump, Guy settled down on the rails and leaned in. “What can I do better?” he asked, his voice low.

“You need to get across a message, right?”

Guy nodded as he listened with silent, rapt attention. In the back of his mind, Guy reminded him of a puppy again. As young as he was, even with his talent, Kakashi’s pack were the only ones who looked that ready to do whatever he said. Kakashi’s mouth twitched.

“For now, just focus on showing off what you can do, Guy. Part of the art of war is the art of intimidation.”

Guy’s smile returned. “So, give it my all in these final matches? Of course! I was going to do that anyway! Will that really make them see me and Papa differently?”

“It would be a start.” Kakashi glanced at the board. “Here’s your chance.”

Guy followed his gaze to the board and his eyes widened at the sight of his name finally appearing up there in big, bold letters.

_Might Guy_

_vs_

_Obito Uchiha_

“Oh! Oh! That’s me! It’s my turn! Intimidate, right? I’ll show you!” Guy still had a smile on his face when he landed, but he fixed it into a more even look and focused his attention on Obito.

Obito met that with a glare, pointing his thumb down. “I’m going to have you pay me back in full for the last time.”

“The… last time?” Guy tilted his head in what looked like genuine confusion.

“—What?!” The fight hadn’t even started yet, and Obito looked ready to fall flat on his face from that remark alone. If Kakashi didn’t know Guy better, he’d like to have thought this was just his way of ticking off volatile people like Obito. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember?”

Guy was dead serious when he asked, “Who are you? What have I done to earn your wrath?”

“Why you little—! Don’t take me for a fool!”

And there was the sound of scattered laughter from the stands.

Honestly, given the choice between the two of them, Kakashi would have rooted for Obito, if the fight had lasted long enough for him to need to. Guy had knocked Obito flat on his face in less than a second with no fight to speak of.

Kakashi grimaced at his teammate’s sorry display. Was Rin _that_ distracting for him? His gaze wondered near where the proctors stood. Sure enough, the chunin was laughing and giggling to himself, but he was hardly irreverent from what was essentially a sucker punch.

“Rival! I did it! Did you see? I captured victory quite soundly!”

“You got lucky,” Kakashi said, a statement of fact more than anything else. Exasperation weighed down Kakashi’s voice, and Obito cut in before he had to say anything else.

“—That’s right, Beast Face!” Obito was currently sporting a rather large welt on his cheek and a bruise near his eye, so the nickname didn’t have much bite to it. “It was just a lucky shot again! Next time, I seriously am going to pay you back for it! So, go away already!”

“Thanks for cheering!”

“Who’s cheering for you!?”

Kakashi would have rolled his eyes at Guy and Obito’s argument, but right now, he really didn’t care. “You’re not going to prove anything to anyone, fighting like that.”

“So, I shouldn’t?” Guy asked. “Then I should just do it my own way after all!”

“You’ll prove less than nothing by going and finishing your self-rule here and now without any sort of thought about consequences of anything. It’s more complicated than that.”

Guy groaned in frustration. “I can be intimidating! I’m absolutely intimidating! I’m proving myself! I trained really, really hard for this, Kakashi!”

“That’s what you spent a week out in the woods for?”

Guy cleared his throat. “Not exactly that, but I’m stronger, so everyone should see that now! I worked hard! Hard work never betrays you!”

“You’re hopeless.”

Guy seemed to deflate a bit at that.

Kakashi sighed. How did Guy manage to look like a kicked puppy like that? “…Don’t look like that. I’m going to help you, after this is over.”

“You are?” Guy sounded more curious than hopeful.

“Not for you, for Duy…san,” Kakashi amended. “Like I said, for now, just focus on proving your worth in today’s matches.”

“I will! My next match will be longer! I hope my next match will show who I am for real!” Guy watched the screen excitedly when it started to light up with the next pair.

_Asuma Sarutobi_

_vs_

_Kurenai Yuhi_

Guy’s smile faltered but didn’t fade. “It’s not my turn yet, but my time will come again!”

“It’s your turn again, Kurenai. How are you feeling?” Rin asked.

Kurenai tested her muscles, shifting and stretching. “Good as new. My genjutsu should work properly again now.” She stood up, “Think you’re up to it, Asuma? I’ve been hoping we’d get a chance to fight for real.”

“Ready to lose, then?” Asuma taunted, straightening up from where he leaned against the wall. A smirk came across his face as they headed down to the arena together.

“Poor Asuma…” Obito watched as they stood off. “I can’t imagine what I’d do if I had to fight Rin.”

“Wow!” Guy responded, “Is Rin that much stronger than you? Even so, you should do your best and fight even impossible odds!”

Obito glared, but finally gave up on that and sighed, “A Beast-face like you wouldn’t get it anyway. I’m just more mature than you.”

Kakashi snorted, trying to pretend like he wasn’t listening to their ridiculous argument.

Both of them certainly didn’t seem to have reservations about the fight. Asuma had his trench knives on, emitting a pale blue aura of chakra over them. Kurenai similarly had a kunai in each of her hands, poised and ready to fight.

The two charged forward at the same time, locking their weapons against one another. They broke away from each other as Kurenai went to strike at Asuma’s stomach, but Asuma blocked and shoved her back. From there, Asuma went on the offensive.

Asuma was bulkier and more of a heavy-hitter compared to Kurenai, the light-footed and the nimblest of the two. She relied on quick effective strikes and stabs and tried to force an opening in his defenses. She wasn’t afraid of taking a few hits if it took that.

Asuma went for a swipe, which Kurenai dodged and countered with a forward stab. Asuma deflected it, redirecting her momentum so that she had her back open to him. Kurenai quickly did a full backflip over him before he had a chance to take advantage of that opening.

Their fight continued like that, more like a dance than a struggle.

“They go really well together. Hey, Kakashi, you think they’re rivals, too?” Guy asked. Obito looked at him like he was crazy, but at least it all but confirmed that romance was the last thing on Guy’s mind. One less thing to worry about from him.

Asuma swung suddenly at Kurenai’s ankles, catching her off her guard. She lost her balance and fell onto her back.

“I win,” Asuma said, smug in his victory. The smile was knocked off of his face when Kurenai tripped him off his feet, making him land on top of her.

“Did you now?” Kurenai asked, placing hand on his face and the other on the back of his neck so it was difficult for him to quickly pull up or avert his gaze.

The two were so close, getting lost into each other’s eyes. Asuma leaned further down, and fell flat on his face, unconscious.

Right. Genjutsu. That’s what she was going for.

Kakashi glanced to the side. Obito and Rin were bright red. Apparently, he had forgotten Kurenai’s main form of attack in all that too.

“I should learn genjutsu too… I’ll have to ask Ebisu once he wakes up,” Guy said to himself. Romance really was the farthest thing from his mind.

The proctor cleared his throat. “The, uh, winner is Kurenai Yuhi,” he said, clearly confused.

Kurenai sat back up, lifting Asuma up with her and trying to leverage him to carry him on her shoulder. When it became clear that she couldn’t carry his weight up the stairs, Guy jumped down again. The proctor glared and looked ready to say something, but Guy simply took Asuma from Kurenai’s arms and easily lifted him up. “I’ll carry him up! That was another splendid match!”

Kakashi stared at the proctor. He would deal with him as soon as this all was over, but for now, Guy was utterly failing at leaving any new impressions on him, if the expression on his face was anything to go by.

“Ah, Kakashi, that’s you! You’re up again next!” Rin called.

Kakashi looked up at the screen.

_Kakashi Hatake_

_vs_

_Anko Mitarashi_

He frowned. He’d almost forgotten about that. The last of Orochimaru’s students. He would have to stop thinking about all these distractions and focus for this one. He took the stairs this time, and the girl was already there waiting for him by the time he arrived. She gave him a curious look.

“Kakashi Hatake… Kakashi Hatake… Ah!” she exclaimed, hitting her fist in her palm in realization. “I’ve heard of you!”

Kakashi internally winced in anticipation of being referred to as the White Fang’s son.

“Yeah! The stalker!” Anko pointed at him. “Orochimaru-sensei said you were peeping on us the other day!” Anko declared, _very_ loudly.

Kakashi could hear Rin gasp in disbelief and Obito’s distinct voice just as loudly declaring, “I knew it! I told you he was a closet pervert, Rin!”

Kakashi was going to throttle him later.

Anko just laughed. “I still wanted to fight the bowl cut kid, but I’m happy to take you on first! Ah, where’s the camera, where’s the camera…” she glanced around, trying to figure out what angle the teachers were watching them from in their separate building. She gave up on looking for exacts and yelled out, “Orochimaru-sensei! Watch me kick his butt!”

Guy called down from the stands, “Kakashi! I wanted to fight her to avenge Ebisu, but I’m okay with you winning! We still have to have our showdown, and that’s more important! So, go ahead and win this!”

Anko just laughed again, waiting for the proctor to officially signal the start of the match. As soon as he did, she charged this time, with a speed that managed to surprise Kakashi. The first punch landed. The second, Kakashi managed to block. He was grateful for it, too. That one had needles. He took a step back, shifted his weight, and pushed Anko, sending a current of electricity running through her.

Anko shivered involuntarily from the lightning and darted out of his reach. Despite that, a glint of excitement showed in her eyes.

She rushed at him again immediately, and soon they were trading blows back and forth. She fought savagely, it was an all-out brawl, no holds barred. They traded blows back and forth, sparks of lightning and bursts of flame, moving in constant circles, both trying to gain some small advantage.

Anko kicked at his midsection, but Kakashi twists sideways and returns with a hard punch. she recovered in time to counter with a punch of her own.

Her needles connected with Kakashi’s stomach, and the strongest surge of heat Kakashi had ever felt surged from them into his skin. He winced and staggered backwards as far as he could, as quickly as he could.

All of a sudden, Kakashi sensed a shifted in the atmosphere. It grew thick and heavy, and he felt as though he was standing in darkness. Kakashi could feel his heart pump wildly, trying to keep up with the pressure in the air. He collapsed to one knee, piercing a kunai into his thigh to see if it was a genjutsu he simply couldn’t muster the power to break through normal means, but it evidently was not. He clenched his fists and resorted to holding his breath. He tried moving his head around, but the weight of the chakra around him forced him to the flex the muscle around his throat so that his neck would not snap.

The pressure lifted suddenly, and Kakashi leapt back just in time to dodge an onslaught of fire from the girl.

“Dammit…!” she panted, taking a wide stance just to keep herself from falling. Her breathing was more labored than Kakashi’s. “Too early for me to try something like that yet. Almost had you though, you have to admit it,” she teased.

Kakashi backed further out of Anko’s immediate range. Better. Much better, considering he was still on his feet. He put his hands together and started weaving through seals. He would need to end this before she tried that again.

He saw her rush at him again, but he vanished before her attack could connect again. She looked around warily, but she didn’t look down until Kakashi had already grabbed her ankle and dragged her down.

She tried and failed to struggle, only managing to shake her head and grit her teeth in frustration.

His foot came into contact with the wall next to her head with a loud thump and brief crack of concrete and the girl flinched, brown hues fixing on the blade held centimeters from her neck. Her eyes snap upward to meet Kakashi’s gaze. She narrowed her eyes at the way he was taunting her, annoyed because she had clearly been bested, and he was only rubbing it in by literally looking down on her like this.

“That’s enough! The winner is Kakashi Hatake!” the proctor finally declared.

Kakashi breathed out and pulled away.

As he sheathed his sword, Anko let out a bit of a whimsical chuckle. “Ah, that’s a shame!”

Kakashi weaved through the hand seals to release her, and the ground pushed her up and closed itself back. Anko stretched, a wild smirk still on her face.

Kakashi tried to catch his breath and prepare to return to the stands, but now that the adrenaline from battle waned, his muscles whined in protest when he tried to jump, particularly the muscles in his shaky legs.

He felt his legs buckle under him, but a pair of arms wrapped around his waist and kept him somewhat steady. “Rival! As expected, you were the coolest out there! I didn’t doubt you for a second!” Guy grinned and pointed at Rin, “I brought your team medic down with me!”

From the surprised look on her face, he had probably literally grabbed her hand and dragged her down with him. She tried to roll with it, though.

“Are you alright, Kakashi?” Rin extended her hand to him, lifting him to his feet, enveloping him with a warm green light and pulling the painful weight of the injuries away with a simple medical jutsu like she’d known it all of her life.

“I’m fine now.”

“Great! Because we’re not done yet! You still have to fight me!” Guy winked and held a thumb up. Behind him, Kakashi could see Anko’s smirk tame itself into something gentler, half-resembling a smile. “He’s cute,” she mouthed silently.

Kakashi’s eye twitched.

“You look well now! I’m going to check on my teammate as well! Be sure to catch your breath Kakashi!” And Guy was gone again, as quickly as he’d come. He and Genma huddled up near the wall where Ebisu still lay unconscious.

“Can you make it back up on your own, Kakashi?” Rin asked.

Kakashi rubbed his stomach where the wounds used to be to check. There was still a dull ache, but nothing he couldn’t live with for now. “I’m fine. Let’s go.”

Obito greeted them when they got back up to the stands. “Guys, look who’s up next!”

_Might Guy_

_vs_

_Rin Nohara_

Kakashi arched an eyebrow.

Obito seemed like he wanted to start cheering already, but instead he turned towards Kakashi. “Bakashi, you have to have some tips about how to beat Beast-face, right? You do it all the time. Tell Rin how to win this!”

“I beat him because I’m better than him.”

“Augh! Would it kill you to be a team player?! Ever?!”

“If I were to seriously rely on you, you would definitely leave me to die through nothing but your incompetence, so… yes.”

Obito looked ready to burst again, and Rin just started on her way down the stairs.

“Rin,” Kakashi called. She stopped and glanced back at them. “Guy has above-average taijutsu and below-average everything else. Close quarter combat is his strongest suit. Yours doesn’t compare to his. Neither does your raw power or your raw speed. If you try to face him head-on with it, you’ll go down as fast as Obito did.”

Kakashi dodged a punch that was aimed at his head.

“There’s nothing that loser can do that Rin doesn’t compare in!” Obito demanded. “Take it back!”

“Why did you tell me to give her advice in the first place if you want me to lie, you idiot…”

Rin laughed. “Thanks, Kakashi, Obito. That helps; I’ll keep it in mind!” She turned tail and ran down the stairs now, evidently motivated by Kakashi’s advice.

“Oh—um, good! Kick his butt, Rin! Show him what’s what! –Bakashi, you cheer too, you idiot.”

“I don’t plan on embarrassing myself with all that flailing and screaming. Whether you cheer or not, it doesn’t do anything to help.”

“Yes, it does!”

“Oh, right—Didn’t you lose because Rin cheered for you? So, it does that.”

Obito made a face. “…Aha! I know! I bet you just want Beast-face to win for… some reason! You’re awfully chummy today! You don’t want him to hear you rooting against him!”

Kakashi’s eyebrows arched downward. “Huh?”

“No answer? Sounds like I was right!”

“I was just stunned to silence by your stupidity.” Kakashi quipped. “I don’t care who wins. So, I’m not cheering. As always.”

Guy made his entrance by jumping from the stands instead of taking the stairs, and at this point, Kakashi was beginning to wonder if Guy was aware of the existence of the stairs.

“Let’s have a good fight, Guy. It’s my turn to avenge my teammate this time.”

Guy frowned in the same confusion he’d shown when Obito made a similar declaration earlier. “Your friend…? Did I do something to earn your wrath too?” he asked. Not intimidating in the slightest.

Instead of answering or getting angry, Rin just smiled cryptically at him. When the proctor called for the match to begin, both Rin and Guy moved at once.

Guy started to charge forward to try to kick her, but he was blown backward by the severe gust of wind summoned by Rin. He barely managed to touch his feet to the ground and roll into a proper stance before he was slammed against the wall behind him.

Guy fought to steady his footing against the gusts, his body tense and ready for anything, expecting Rin to let up with this soon.

She didn’t.

Instead, she forced more power into it to make it stronger, trying very hard to properly knock Guy off his feet and out of his guarded stance. It was an exercise in futility. Guy was as solid as an anchor.

She shifted gears, letting her wind peter out and changing to weave through attacks she could send at him from the distance she established, since he wasn’t going to move immediately.

Bullets of water pelted his skin with enough force to leave bruises on his shoulders or to nick his skin where they grazed past him. The ones that hit his arms presumable bruised as well, but his loose bandages kept them hidden completely.

Once the wind had fully died down, Guy left his defensive stance and dodged every projectile that Rin tossed at him: streams of water, kunai, even pieces of the arena. Every time Guy got close enough to her to touch, Rin threw him back with a wild gust of wind. Despite everything, at this point, they seemed to be evenly matched. The match continued in the not-quite-standstill, in which Guy couldn’t close in enough to land a hit, while little bruises and cuts were left by Rin’s attacks. If this went on long enough, and Rin had enough chakra, she could win with a strategy like this against anyone else. Guy’s stamina dwarfed hers, though. She’d get tired long before Guy would.

Guy darted in again, and this time, Rin wasn’t quite ready for him. Forced into physical combat, she threw out a few jabs downward at the slightly shorter boy. He avoided them, but she’d expected that. She wanted to funnel him into the movement that would leave an opening. She had hoped the jabs would distract from the kick swept into his side.

To her credit, Guy evidently was surprised, but not enough that he couldn’t manage to catch her leg and use her own momentum to lift her off her remaining foot entirely like she was little more than a doll.

From there, Rin promptly found herself lying on her back, Guy's foot at her throat, her arm held in a lock above her.

The proctor seemed to wait a while, tapping his foot and judging the hold for what must have been over a minute. Guy kept it firmly, tightening his grip whenever Rin tried to move her hands to form a seal.

“Alright, that’s enough. The match goes to Might Guy,” the proctor said, holding up the flag with a lackluster lack of enthusiasm. Guy’s enthusiastic grin more than made up for it as he finally released Rin.

Rin gasped in a breath of air. “That was a really solid hold,” she said, rubbing her bruised neck in complaint. Kakashi could practically feel Obito’s seething rage beside him.

The next names flashed up on the screen, and Rin returned to her team with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Obito, I don’t think I managed to avenge you very well.”

“No, you did great, Rin! Way better than Beast-face! He got lucky again!”

Guy looked up at the screen and stayed in the arena where he was.

_Kurenai Yuhi_

_vs_

_Might Guy_

He didn’t have time to catch his breath, but he tried to adjust his bandages for now.

Genma walked over and leaned against the railing, standing at a bit of a distance on the side of Kakashi opposite to Obito. “Guy!” he called out, prompting his younger teammate to glance up. Genma grinned around his senbon and held a thumb up.

Whatever that meant, apparently Guy got the message, grinning back and nodding. He dug around in his pouch and put something in his mouth, too quickly for Kakashi to make out what it was.

He didn’t have much time to wonder. The match started shortly after.

Guy took the first jab and connects with her side, drawing a grunt from Kurenai. She tried to get him back, but he blocked her and countered with another hit to her side. They sparred back and forth like that for a bit, Kurenai actually managing to get a hit or two in. And then she finally caught him completely off guard and knocked his feet out from under him. Guy stumbled back with the wind knocked out of him, but he didn’t fall.

Still, that was all Kurenai needed. She loomed over him, looking him right in the eyes.

As she did so, the atmosphere around them changed suddenly. Guy stilled like a heaviness clung to his skin.

“Oh, this is…! I get it, he’s trapped in her genjutsu!” Obito seemed proud of himself for realizing it. Rin nodded. “It’s over!”

“It was a bad matchup. Guy didn’t stand a chance,” Kakashi noted impartially, shrugging.

Genma just hummed curiously.

“You sound upset! Bet you were rooting for Beast-face instead of Kurenai, weren’t you?” Obito teased. He sounded awfully smug for someone who was out of the running already.

“He probably wasn’t, but I still am,” Genma answered before Kakashi even had a chance to ignore Obito.

Kurenai raised a kunai. “It’s ove—”

Guy suddenly landed a blow right in her gut, and Kurenai clearly felt most of the breath leave her lungs. Remarkably, she stayed standing, but it took a moment for the shock to wear off. That moment was all Guy needed.

Kakashi could see the trickle of blood falling from Guy’s lips. “That idiot really…”

“What? What’d he do?” Obito cut in.

Genma grinned around his senbon. “Clever, isn’t he?”

“Reckless and stupid is what he is,” Kakashi answered in feigned exasperation.

“What happened?!” Obito demanded.

Down below, the fight’s tides had firmly turned in Guy’s favor. His eyes were firmly closed and his movements were somewhat erratic, but he knocked Kurenai back with an impressive thrust that left her on her back.

She hoisted herself on her feet and rested her elbows on her knees, panting heavily. Guy was about to rush back in, but she raised a hand and shook her head.

“That’s enough,” the proctor announced, taking the hint, “The winner is Might Guy.”

Guy reached into his mouth and pulled out a bloody senbon –the tool he’d been able to use to inflict enough pain on himself to pull his focus out of the jutsu. He opened his eyes and spit the blood out of his mouth, and a wide grin showed that some still stained his teeth. Still, Guy was so happy he was practically shining.

“Genma!” Guy called up, waving the bloodied senbon in the air. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get to practice the projectile thing! Do you still want this back?”

Genma’s grin widened. “Maybe once you clean it off, Guy,” he answered sarcastically.

Guy nodded seriously and put the senbon into his weapons pouch. “Alright, I will! Promise!”

The screen started flashing symbols again, going through to pick the names for the next match. “Already? Well, they didn’t exactly mess up the arena. If I have to guess who’s up next…” Genma started, flicking his senbon.

Obito counted off all the eliminated genin on his hands. “That’s—ah! This next round is the final one!” He glared at his hands. “So Kakashi’s in the final. Ugh…” He looked at Rin wistfully with his one good eye, but her attention was already firmly on Kakashi.

“This will be the last match, then! Are you still hurt from before? I can help you before you head down. I want you to be at your best,” Rin gushed, and Kakashi felt uncomfortable under her obviously romantic attention. He turned his attention to Obito instead of her.

“Well, team player, are you going to wish me luck? It’s my final match, so you’re going to cheer for me, right?” he asked pointedly. It annoyed Obito just as much as he expected it to.

“Just go get it over with already! I’m not cheering for you!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kakashi teased, holding up a hand and doing a body flicker down to the stage.

_Kakashi Hatake_

_vs_

_Might Guy_

Guy stretched and bounced on the balls of his feet. It didn’t do much to hide his fatigue from his two consecutive battles, nor the way he shook where he had to put pressure on anything. “Finally! You and I, eternal rivals, tied by destiny, facing down in a most official match! The winner will inch ahead in rank! My blood is boiling already!”

Kakashi flexed his fingers. “Guy.”

“Yes, Rival? Are you excited too? I swear--”

“I won’t go easy on you.”

Guy blinked owlishly. Kakashi thought for a second that he would be going into the fight as dazed and distracted as Obito, and Kakashi wondered why he was even bothering trying to prove anything to a couple of lackluster chunin, much less for Guy’s sake.

Guy closed his mouth. The bright, cherry smile vanished. And in its stead a look of focus appeared. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, Kakashi. Intimidate, right? I’ll do my best.”

Guy’s body language shifted immediately. He balled his fists and crossed his arms in front of him. He whispered something to himself that Kakashi couldn’t quite make out and couldn’t read with Guy’s face hidden behind his raised arms like that.

“Begin.” The proctor’s flags waved, and his voice was almost drowned out by Guy’s.

“Open… OPEN!”

Kakashi sensed a sudden burst of energy. Guy wasn’t known for his skill with ninjutsu, but that chakra was enough to make even Kakashi pause.

Guy slipped into the stance he should have been in before this started— knees bent, one arm out, and eyes burning with resolve. It was like the fatigue and injuries from his previous matches really had disappeared.

 “This is a move from Papa. This is what I inherited from him. This is what me and Papa are capable of!”

Kakashi could hear the proctor try and fail to choke back a chuckle at that, and from the way Guy’s eyes flickered towards the chunin, it was clear he heard it as well.

Kakashi charged forward and delivered a solid punch to Guy’s throat. Guy recoiled in pain –his cough sounded more like a whimper.

“Keep your eyes on your opponent,” Kakashi hissed. “Or I _will_ kill you.”

Guy stumbled backwards, putting some distance between them and catching his breath. “Right. I can’t strike a very threatening figure if I get distracted so easily!” He grinned, briefly returning to his cheerful demeanor before forcing himself back into a serious expression. “Thanks, Rival.”

Suddenly, Guy vanished entirely.

Kakashi sensed him coming down from above and lifted up his arms to block the drop kick Guy had aimed down at him. Immediately, Guy vanished again and came at him from another angle that Kakashi barely reacted to in time, and again, and again.

Kakashi had not expected that unnatural speed. Guy had never shown a speed like that before. His eyes couldn’t follow the movements at all.

After being forced to simply stand his ground and keep up his defense from Guy’s attacks for over a minute, Kakashi finally threw two electrified punches hard, knowing they’ll be blocked, and takes a blow to the stomach from the other boy.

He allows it to knock him off him feet, to take the wind from him, and curls up on the ground. Before Guy could finish his approach, Kakashi aimed a kick at the back of his knees and completed his trap, snapping his legs closed on Guy’s foot, knocking him to the ground and springing over him. When Kakashi went to punch him, Guy halted his blow by grabbing his wrist.

He gritted his teeth; his muscles pulsating as he shoved himself back against the older genin and squeezed his hilt tight. He knew his upper body strength would fail up against Guy’s, so he was prepared when his own footing slipped. Using Guy’s strength as an anchor, he tossed himself back and forced a fair amount of distance between the two of them.

As Kakashi suspected, Guy bolted for him again as soon as he got the chance. He blocked him again, this time successfully knocking him back with the right amount of force. He tried to go for his side, but Guy dodged and went for his shoulder. When that missed, Kakashi ducked, evading the kick that sliced through the air above him like a blade. Kakashi shot up and tried an undercut to his chest, though he predicted it and dodged easily.

Kakashi didn’t give up the offensive and tried to swing down again, but Guy parried with an upward swing that knocked the sword out of Kakashi’s hand, and followed it up with a kick that Kakashi barely managed to block, then a spin and a lower kick aimed at Kakashi’s abdomen. Kakashi managed to block it, but the force was enough to knock him back, and even off the ground for a moment.

Guy vanished again, reappearing under Kakashi and kicking him up higher into the air so fast that the pressure of the air pushing against Kakashi was painful in and of itself.

He could sense Guy’s presence behind him in an instant, and he heard what sounded like Guy’s bandages unraveling. If Guy was trying to bind his arms and legs like Kurenai had done, he’d be disappointed. Kakashi could still carry on a fight like that either way, but he wasn’t going to let Guy pull an obvious trick like that on him. Just before the bandages tightened around him, Kakashi used a substitution jutsu.

In midair, Guy somehow spun himself and the fake Kakashi at a ferocious speed, whipping up such a powerful wind that they had to feel it from the stands.

Guy piledrove the clone into the ground, like a drill breaking solid marble

When the dust cleared, the force of the attack was made very clear. The ground was shattered to dust, and the log that had been his substation was reduced to splinters now.

“…I missed? Ah.” Guy panted out, drawing back up into his stance and looking up at the real Kakashi. Exhaustion was beginning to catch up to him now, but Guy tried to hide it. Guy charged forward again, and Kakashi braced himself.

Suddenly, it was over.

Guy crumbled to his knees, panting like his lungs were being crushed. If there was any ounce of energy left in his body to fight, he would have been using it now. As stubborn as that kid was, he had just stopped moving.

“That’s enough! The winner is Kakashi Hatake!”

 It was really over.

Kakashi himself was surprisingly winded. He held his own wrist and shot a glare to the chunin again, trying to read him.

Guy’s body hit the ground with a dull thud, and when Kakashi turned his attention back to him, he couldn’t see his body rise and fall with breath.

He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t reacting to anything. Kakashi took a step closer. Was Guy…

“Hey, hey, you won, you won. Ease up a little, Hatake. Look alive, everyone’s cheering for you.” Genma’s calm drawl interrupted Kakashi’s worries as the older boy leapt down and landed in between Kakashi and Guy. “Congrats. Knew you could do it, yadda, yadda…” Genma’s tone was casual even as his stance was noticeably protective.

Genma knelt down and checked Guy’s pulse. “More than I can say for you, huh, Guy… You’ll need an actual medic nin, not me,” Genma admitted. “Well, you’re alive. Good job out there, Guy.”

Genma stood up and looked around, but evidently, he couldn’t see any cameras hidden either. “Choza-sensei! If you’re watching, we could really use your help right now!” Genma called out, struggling to hold Guy in his arms. There was no reaction. “Still not back, huh… Geez, carrying Ebisu is one thing, that guy’s a twig. But you, Guy…”

Outside the doors, someone seemed to be trying to force their way in and arguing with the guards.

“Sir, excuse me, could you please— If you would wait just a second—”

“But he just said the final match has concluded! My son was competing! I have to see him!” Duy burst in as soon as the doors to the outside were unlocked for them. The sight of the grown, homely-looking man was met with scattered laughter and scattered cringing, as it always was. Duy breathed so hard, he had probably run to make it here in time for the end. His grin fell when he saw Guy collapse in Genma’s arms.

“Guy! My boy!”

Genma glanced away uneasily and simply handed Guy off to Duy. Or rather, he let Duy run over and scoop his son out of Genma’s arms and into a teary embrace. “You idiot! Using the gates for something like an exam…! Did your promise to me mean nothing?!” Duy violently shook his son’s limp body in his arms.

Guy’s open eyes didn’t even twitch in response.

“You rush into things, Guy…! But…! You are never one to betray a promise! This must truly have been important to you! You fought your absolute hardest, my dear son! For that, I’m proud of you…! In my eyes, you’ve already proven it! You’re a proud Shinobi of the Leaf!” Duy held his son even tighter in the embrace, nuzzling his face against Guy’s and getting tears all over him.

Guy didn’t seem to be able to feel any of that. Kakashi wondered if Guy could hear everyone laughing at him, though. The stadium was a mix of sounds of mocking laughter or pity or disgust, and the proctor made a face that showed all three. Kakashi clenched his fist a little tighter.

“It’ll be fine, young Kakashi,” Duy said, “Guy will be just fine too. He simply needs to rest. The gates take a huge toll, and this little fool hasn’t practiced nearly enough to try to fight with two of them,” Duy explained. “Besides, he can still hear everyone cheering him on! My boy will be motivated and back on his feet in no time at all! And in the meantime! Congratulations are in order, aren’t they?” Duy’s tears dried immediately, and he was smiling brightly. “Well done, Kakashi! Both Guy and I are blown away! It makes me happy that my son and his rival gave their all like this! You should take pride in a victory like that as well!”

Kakashi sighed but smiled. Pride. He was proud of himself, he was always proud of himself. He was the best one here by far, wasn’t he? Kakashi’s smile turned to a grin, and he even held up a thumb in imitation of Duy. “Yeah. Thanks, Duy.”

“Of course! I’ll have to be sure to pick out an appropriate present for your victory! A chunin! And so young! How remarkable!”

The proctor made a remark about that, but Kakashi cleared his throat and held out his arms instead of listening to him.

Duy seemed both openly confused and taken aback.

“You…” Kakashi shook his head, trying not to blush from how embarrassing this was. It wasn’t that he cared that they were in front of a crowd, he simply hated admitting these sorts of things out loud. “This is the kind of thing you usually say deserves a hug… or something.”

Out of nowhere, Duy’s eyes filled with tears again, and he sprang forward to hug Kakashi, and Guy, sort of, with the awkward way his body was still being held. They embraced for a moment. Duy really wasn’t very strong, but Kakashi enjoyed the warmth of the arms holding him tight.


	5. Chapter 5

 

Kakashi glowered sullenly. His fists were trembling in frustration.

Someone should pay for this.

“You look—intimidating! Demanding! And—we match!” Minato offered in consolation. Minato was excellent at a lot of things, but his attempt at damage control was falling short, somehow. “It suits you really well, Kakashi. No one would really think you’re a ‘silly-looking half-pint chunin’.” The fact that he repeated Obito’s exact phrasing didn’t make Kakashi feel any more self-assured about the outfit, either.

Kakashi tugged at his new chunin vest, silently regarding himself in the lake’s reflection and trying to seem less tiny than the oversized vest made him look. It was a futile effort. The thing was sized for an adult, already over half his height and larger than his width. The collar came up to his ears, even with the heavy way the body of the vest hung on his shoulders, all the way to his legs. Kakashi wondered if this vest was actually larger than Minato’s.

“It took me a while to grow into mine properly, too. But the sight of it alone commands respect, don’t you think, Obito, Rin?” Minato continued.

It was a little difficult to hear Minato’s reassurances over Obito’s laughter. “Yeah, it looks great on you, Bakashi! It’s not your fault you’re still a little kid! Look, Rin, he’s practically drowning in that thing!”

Rin simply stared and silently took in the sight with…bemusement? Fascination? Or maybe the kind of curiosity that was only people with a crush displayed. Kakashi would never understand it, so he usually opted to ignore it. “…Maybe you just need to look at it from a different angle?” Rin suggested hopefully. “Strike a pose.”

He tried it, aiming his own attempt at a Good Guy Pose at his reflection, and felt instantly flustered. It was stupid to try. Cutting him off for the umpteenth time today, Obito’s sharp bark of laughter filled the air.

“Yeah, that’s—”

Whatever he was going to say was cut off by Kakashi taking off the jacket and hurling it straight at Obito’s face, putting enough force behind it to knock Obito straight off his feet and onto the ground.

“Why you—! You looking for a fight?!”

Obito began to push himself back up, but Kakashi pinned him to the ground with a foot pressed against his chest. It was satisfying to literally look _down_ on the taller boy for once. “I should ask you the same thing. Laughing at your superior.”

Obito scoffed. “My _superior_?”

“Yes, your superior. In rank and in skill.”

“Those two…” Kakashi could hear Minato-sensei lament, probably to Rin.

“Skill? You wanna bet?!” Obito couldn’t climb back onto his feet, but his hands were free, and he began weaving through hand seals to show Kakashi exactly what he was threatening. “I didn’t get to show off my moves yesterday, I should show them to you now!”

“I have a few things I have yet to show off myself,” Kakashi argued, and he weaved through his necessary symbols faster than Obito.

Neither of got very far, either way. Rin’s hands firmly covered both Kakashi’s and Obito’s. “Everyone did really well. Both of you are so strong! I’m happy the three of us are a team,” she said, which sounded more like a threat than a compliment to Kakashi.

To Obito, it must have sounded like some sort of declaration of love. He blushed and nodded vigorously. “Me, too! We’re the best team ever, Rin!”

Kakashi sighed, but dropped the argument. It’d be meaningless.

Pleased that the fight had ended, Rin released both of their hands, and Kakashi released Obito, offering a hand to help him up. Obito frowned, torn between suspicion and pride as he eyed the hand Kakashi was offering.

Kakashi rolled his eyes, “Maybe next time around, you’ll get an actual chance to fight. Just learn to stop being so careless, and maybe you’ll be half decent in the field.” Arriving on time for once would be nice too, but reminding him of that was as effective of talking to a brick wall. Kakashi didn’t plan on wasting his breath.

“We can train some more to help you get better at it! It was just bad luck that you were up against Guy twice,” Rin said, and once again, Obito changed his tune immediately.

“You’re so smart, Rin! Alright! I’ll focus on that! No one’s ever getting a lucky hit in against me ever again!”

“Actually, how about we take a break for today?” Minato announced, finally stepping in himself. “I’m sure you guys are still exhausted from the finals yesterday. Here’s another important lesson for you three: Take care of your bodies and know when to rest.”

“Obito doesn’t have anything to be exhausted from,” Kakashi muttered. Obito was going to say something back, but Rin cut in, “That’s a great idea, Minato-sensei! Actually, Obito, I was hoping you would come shopping with me today! I wanted to pick out a gift to give to Kushina for helping us out so much during the exams.”

“That’s perfect! Leave it to me! Kushina’s pretty scary, but I think I know her tastes!” Obito took off running.

Rin turned around and waved her hand as she trailed behind Obito. Sometimes it was easy for forget that both of them were older than Kakashi.

“I guess it’s just the two of us?” Minato said, offering Kakashi an awkward smile.

Kakashi just glared at his chunin vest, picking it back up and dusting off the dirt. “It was obvious I was going to win. They should have had a vest in my size,” Kakashi complained, “They couldn’t seriously think anyone else was going to be pass the exam.”

“Guy came pretty close,” Minato suggested.

“He’s the same size as me.” And no one had expected him to come close to Kakashi. Especially not the proctors in charge of that exam.

Minato nodded in agreement, trying for a more plausible answer. “Maybe they just never wanted to imagine that they’d be passing on the title of chunin to someone so young. It’s a lot of responsibility to handle, especially now.”

Kakashi looked at Minato, narrowing his eyes into a scrutinizing glare. “You think I can’t handle it?”

“I didn’t say that,” Minato quickly clarified. “It’s just –you’re young. I just think you still have a lot more you can learn. As your teacher, that part is my responsibility. You’re a chunin now, but you can still rely on me. The same goes for the rest of your team. Until the day you guys have truly surpassed me, I’ll be here whenever you need me.”

Kakashi wanted to argue that he didn’t need to be babied or spoken down to like Obito and Rin did. He wanted to, but he still had yet to actually beat his teacher in a fight. Nothing he said would carry much weight to it when they both knew Kakashi was still too weak to beat this particular jonin. “…I can handle the title of chunin or jonin better than plenty of the adults in this village. _Guy_ or _Obito_ could handle the title better than some of the adults in this village. My age has nothing to do with it.”

Kakashi could actually imagine Guy in an oversized green vest to match his jumpsuit. He pictured how his eyes would light up and he’d spin around in giddy excitement, probably not even noticing the discrepancy in its size. The sides of it would flap wildly with his exaggerated poses and boundless energy, especially whenever he leapt down out of nowhere or did one of his overly dramatic dynamic entries. If anything, Guy would take it in stride and insist he looked even better that way.

The mental image made Kakashi crack a smile. It almost made him chuckle.

“Hm?” Minato stared at him curiously. Kakashi could feel his face starting to get warm again.

“—I’ve been working under you for over a year, Minato-sensei, you know I’m not some kid,” he grumbled, giving his teacher a light shove. It had been a long time since he could remember being this flustered over something, and it was in front of _Minato-sensei_ of all people.

It was a rather poor attempt to change the subject, but Minato-sensei mercifully went along with it. “Well, there are plenty of bright sides to being seen as younger! Even if you build up an amazing reputation, you’ll still sometimes have enemies who underestimate you, or don’t think you are who you are because they ‘expected someone older’ and ‘that guy has a baby face’!”

“Minato-sensei… You’re… speaking from experience, aren’t you?”

“…Something like that…” Minato frowned and looked at Kakashi, who looked equally surprised that he would admit it.

Kakashi shook his head and tried to think of something sympathetic to say, but no words came out. He’d been working under Minato for longer than Rin and Obito had, and he had only been a young teenager when he first took Kakashi under his wing, but Kakashi still only had a vague idea of how young Minato was when he earned his reputation. “…That just proves my point. We’re the best shinobi this village has to offer.”

Minato cleared his throat. “Your village knows how valuable you are. Even if you don’t wear your vest, you wear this,” Minato adjusted his headband. “That’s what shows your will of fire!”

Kakashi didn’t react, his lidded eyes remaining impassive and unimpressed.

“…Your will of fire!” Minato repeated awkwardly. “…Ahem! So! Is there something you wanted to do with your day off? Starting tomorrow it’s back to missions. We’ll probably be getting harder assignments than ever now.”

“Finally,” Kakashi sighed. “It’s about time.”

Minato’s smile returned to his face. “Want to spend today with me? Maybe we can get some training done after all.”

It was a tempting offer. If Kakashi still had a long way to go, it would be better to spend his time improving whatever skills were still so lacking.

However, the thought of Guy flashed in his mind again. More specifically, the mental image of Guy in the forest with his kunai, or Guy unconscious and unbreathing after the fight from yesterday. Ebisu was fine now, but he still had yet to hear anything about Guy, and he was reluctant to actually ask anyone. The more it crossed his mind, the more it swayed him. “There’s…”

“Something you have to do today?” Minato finished for him. Kakashi wondered if his teacher could read minds, sometimes. Looking up to him, he caught that knowing smile and his silent question was answered.

Minato kept his smile, eyes slightly narrowed with an understanding stare. Pale fingers brushed over Kakashi’s shoulder, as if to wipe away some of the worries Kakashi was letting show. Minato played it off as though dust were collecting there. “I understand, Kakashi. It’s your day off. Have fun.” Stepping back, Minato raised his hand in a simple wave. “Let him know I was impressed with his abilities, too, alright?” And then, the Yellow Flash vanished without a trace.

Left alone, Kakashi frowned in frustration, deciding not to wonder about whatever Minato was thinking. He was above Kakashi’s skill level, and Kakashi didn’t understand his mind a lot of the time, anyway. Yet. He would catch up.

With that in mind, Kakashi begrudgingly started on his way.

He sincerely doubted Guy was recuperating at his house at the moment. Duy wasn’t careless or reclusive enough to allow that. In all likelihood, they were still at a hospital.

Kakashi could at least forego going through the front door or signing in to visit him. After all, he wasn’t paying Guy a friendly visit or anything remotely like it. As long as he hadn’t accidentally killed Guy, Kakashi wouldn’t have to stay here long, which was a small mercy. Kakashi hated hospitals. The peculiar smell of them was the least of his concerns.

For a building meant to house sick, injured shinobi, it was never particularly well-guarded. It was easy to jump the gates, walk up the walls, and search for the right room from outside. Kakashi only sensed two chakra signatures in the room, and he knew them both well. Well enough to be confident that he wouldn’t have to worry about being spotted.

Kakashi peeked through the open window.

Guy’s chest visibly rose and fell now, underneath the white blankets on his bed.

Next to him, Duy was kneeling, resting his arms against the mattress and his chin against his arms. Duy’s position was probably so awkward because he had stayed up so late watching over Guy, but now, he was out like a light, sleeping soundly and seeming much more exhausted than Guy. The bed’s covers were stretched and lopsidedly scrunched under Duy, leaving part of the blanket draped on the floor and part of the bed barren. His loud snoring echoed through the room, which explained why Guy got to have the room to himself with no other patients.

Some part of Kakashi naturally relaxed at the sight of those two. Duy wouldn’t be asleep at all if something was seriously wrong with his son. He would be up and crying and screaming, and probably forced out by the medics for being a distraction.

Kakashi swung his legs over the edge of the window and silently lowered himself onto the floor.

Duy snorted and mumbled something in his sleep, and Kakashi tensed, preparing to abscond if he had somehow woken Guy up. Duy simple buried his face further into the hospital blankets he was hogging and kept snoring. 

Kakashi felt more than sure that he wouldn’t be waking up any time soon.

Still, Kakashi made sure to stay silent as he slipped past the man, balanced his weight so he didn’t disturb a tile or the blankets or the bed. Another thing to hate about hospitals. He knew it was part of the point, but their mattresses were stiff and at horribly awkward heights.

Kakashi climbed onto the bed and pressed his head against Guy’s chest. The gentle but regular thump-thump of Guy’s heartbeat made Kakashi breathe out a sigh of relief. “You’re still going to be around to bug me for a while.”

Kakashi slipped his hand into Guy’s, squeezing slightly to get a feel for his pulse and test for any reaction. His pulse was weak. They must have given him some kind of soporific before he would go to sleep. A drugged, deep, dreamless sleep. His muscles were still stiff, but not unmoving anymore —they were trembling now. There was no indication that he was aware at all, and he didn’t seem close to waking up.

Kakashi settled into the uncomfortable hospital bed next to Guy and breathed out another sigh, still holding onto Guy’s hand.

“You’re the only one who hasn’t said anything about my promotion yet. Are you jealous? Obito and Asuma are. Rin and Minato-sensei got me gifts for passing, but of course Obito refused to do even that much. He’s so annoying,” Kakashi whispered, eyes curiously tracing Guy’s features as if that would tell him anything else about his current condition.

He looked paler but otherwise normal. He didn’t sense the same surge of energy he’d had during their fight or the dearth of it he’d had afterward.

“I got my vest, too. It looks ridiculous. Doesn’t even fit me. Why do they let idiots be in charge of things like the chunin exams? There’s no way I can wear that in a fight without it getting in the way.” Kakashi let go of Guy’s hand and moved to grab the blanket around him instead. “I would just give it to Duy, but that’s not exactly allowed.”

Kakashi lifted up the corner of the covers and pulled them back. Under the blankets, Guy’s shirt had ridden up on his abdomen, revealing a strip of bare skin and the self-inflicted scars from before. He looked tiny, wearing loosely-fitting white hospital clothes instead of his jarring green jumpsuit.

“Who knows, maybe it would look better on you. You could pull off an oversized cargo vest without looking any sillier than you already do every day.”

Kakashi’s hand slipped under the shirt, fingertips tracing patterns on his skin, over old and new scars. The scars he’d seen in the forest felt recently healed, and if Guy was conscious, Kakashi suspected he would be in slight pain from them being touched. He’d wince, maybe, but he wouldn’t collapse and he definitely wouldn’t die from these. They weren’t exactly shallow, but they weren’t deep enough. They weren’t wide enough, either, or at an angle that suggested he was going for a wider cut.

Maybe Guy didn’t know what he was doing. Kakashi was grateful for Guy’s naivety, if that was the case.

After all, he would need a hole much larger than this scar —larger than Kakashi’s hand, at least. Deep enough that blood wouldn’t be the only thing oozing from the wound. Severe enough that anyone trying to help would be too late, no matter what. Sakumo had known exactly what he was doing. Kakashi remembered that the gaping hole in his father’s stomach had been larger than the size of both his hands together. He knew, because he had been an idiotic little kid whose first instinct was to try to cover the wound with his bare hands in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding, a futile measure to stop his soft, slimy insides from spilling out.

As much as he had lost himself in the end, Sakumo had always remembered how to kill.

A skilled shinobi to the end, even if he was a traitor. Kakashi would give him credit for that much. Not that his father was around to hear any praise or criticism Kakashi had for him. The last thing Kakashi would ever hear from Sakumo was his heavy, ragged breathing fading away.

Guy, on the other hand, was a child at the end of the day. His ignorance was more reassuring than any promise could be. His skin was warm; rough, but unbroken. He would still be hearing his ridiculous challenges and self-rules and lofty promises almost every day for quite a while.

“The score’s 6 to 1 now. You’re never going to catch up at this rate,” he mused aloud, expression thoughtful as silver brows creased lightly upon pale skin. A smile teased his lips, eyes alight with silent mirth and warm fondness. A part of him was looking forward to watching Guy try to close that gap, even if Kakashi never planned on letting him.

Silently, Kakashi exhaled before slowly pulling his hand away and sitting back up, careful not to disturb the mattress or the covers. “Hurry up and open your eyes soon. I told you, we have a job to do. I don’t have time to wait for you.” Kakashi glanced at Guy’s father, who made another mumbling, unintelligible sound against the blankets. “Get up before Duy does, at least.”

Kakashi raised his hand and vanished in a simple body flicker, out of the hospital and into the streets of Konoha again.

Absentmindedly gazing at location cues left and right, Kakashi began to walk down a shaded path. It wasn’t along the sidewalks of a bustling street as he could have taken, but the overgrown paths and shadowed alleys of a shortcut instead, more to avoid people than to save time. As nice as it was to get some recognition and praise once he’d won the tournament, it had gotten old pretty fast.

It was a day off, a day to himself. A chance for peace and quiet. He should do some training. Sharpen his skills. Clear his mind. Get ready to make jonin.

Lost in thought, Kakashi found himself in the library instead of going to the mountain to do some hand-handed cliffside climbing. It was the last thing he should let his mind be so preoccupied with, but he tried to pretend his actions were more absentminded than they really were. He would find a book, read it, and then go train like he should have in the first place –a self-rule of sorts.

His gaze darted from shelf to shelf, observing the dust-covered, strictly organized books. Books about clans, about history, about war and strategy. Kakashi had read through almost all of the books in there that were of any interest to him, but he’d never come across anything like whatever Guy had used in their fight.

He doubted it was a bloodline limit. Kakashi had never read or heard about a Might clan.

It wasn’t genjutsu.

Ninjutsu was a possibility. There were some ninjutsu techniques that increased vitality and speed for brief spurts —but Kakashi had studied plenty of those, and nothing resembled Guy’s technique at all. Going through the books and scrolls on similar ninjutsu again, Kakashi failed to find anything that would explain Guy’s ability or the toll it took to use.

Kakashi wasn’t even sure what he was looking for. All Duy had mentioned were “the gates,” so he scanned through the texts for anything mentioning them.

The stack of books on the table before him was piling up, and over the sound of shuffling pages, Kakashi heard approaching footsteps; the shuffling gait of someone trying to be noticed. Kakashi had thought that he was in the library alone; evidently, he was wrong, and evidently, whoever else was there didn’t even care enough to walk quietly.

“Hey! If it isn’t Kakashi-sama,” Genma took the seat next to Kakashi without so much as asking if it was free. Genma leaned to the side to read over Kakashi’s shoulder, humming to himself curiously. “Kakashi Hatake! A chunin! You’ve gotta be the youngest ever, right?”

Without bothering to look up from his book, Kakashi responded, “Guy’s not with me,” and turned the page just to spite him.

“Huh. Nope, he’s not,” Genma agreed. He leaned back in his seat with a disappointed sigh. “Must still be out cold. Otherwise, the first place he would run to is by your side, right?” he asked, tone indicating he was testing him again.

Kakashi ignored him, and the both of them seemed content to let that awkward silence stretch for several minutes.

Genma finally gave up on waiting for a response. “—I’m kidding, Hatake, I’m kidding. You can be so cold, you know that? It wouldn’t hurt to smile and play nice sometimes, would it?” Genma picked up one of Kakashi’s discarded books and leafed through the pages curiously. “Reading about ninjutsu… Ah. If you’re trying to find anything in these books about Guy’s technique, I can tell you not to waste your time.”

An almost-silence fell between them again. Genma filled the empty air with the sound of his kunai spinning around his finger. For a boy who always seemed ready to fall asleep, he sure knew how to act restless if it was for the sake of being annoying. Who did this boy think he was, anyway? It got on his nerves, but then again, a lot of things got on his nerves.

“—‘What makes you say that, Genma?’ Good question, Hatake! What makes me say that is that I’m pretty sure,” Genma leaned back in his chair, pulling a well-worn scroll out of his back and spinning it around in his hand. He seemed perfectly content to hold this conversation with himself. “I have the only scroll in this village that’s an actual written account of ‘the gates.’ That’s how it is with old, forgotten, forbidden techniques sometimes.”

Kakashi very nearly betrayed his surprise at that bit of information.

Evidently, that brief flicker of emotion was all Genma needed. It was only natural. A sharpshooter needed sharp instincts, so unlike Guy, Genma had to have a working set of eyes. He smiled a very self-satisfied grin, “Well! You look interested now!”

“You’re annoying…” Kakashi groaned, narrowing his eyes. “What are you so fixated on Guy for?”

“That’s not fair, I asked you first.” Genma stood up and put the scroll away. He apparently didn’t expect a verbal response from Kakashi, because he didn’t wait for one this time. “Take a walk with me.” Genma turned and began to walk towards the door.

Kakashi rubbed his eyes and let out a quiet sigh. “…Fine.” His tone was indifferent as he walked past Genma. It wasn’t as if Kakashi had anything better to do at the moment.

“Make it quick.” Kakashi’s voice was a soft mutter, and he reprimanded himself for reacting at all. But he moved forward, arms crossed over his chest, waiting for the nuisance to say something.

Genma strolled behind Kakashi, not even trying to match his brisk pace. Genma even stopped and idled at a dango stand before he got back to following after Kakashi, newly acquired food in tow.

Since Genma was the one withholding information, Kakashi was implicitly forced to slow down and match his slower pace. This entire ordeal was proving to Kakashi that teams were mistakes.

“’Quick,’ right. What was I going to talk about? About the weather, the war, proper mission logs…” Genma trailed off, his long hair whipping into his face as he casually strode forward. Genma took a sharp turn towards the training fields and into a woody area. “Hey, why do you need to know what the technique is, anyway? It’s not really something you’ll get much use out of. This about Guy? Mad that he almost beat you or something?”

Kakashi just stared ahead blankly. The way Genma rolled eyes expressed his amusement and exasperation with the chunin’s lack of response very clearly. “Can’t you just say what’s on your mind? Ever? My brain hurts from talking to you. I’m not a genius, Hatake.”

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out when to stop asking a question he’s not getting an answer to.”

“But this could be so easy!” Genma waved his stick of dango around. “You open your mouth, say what you mean, and it’s done. Look, I’ll even go first. You asked why I care so much. Well,” Genma took a deep breath, “I’m just trying to look out for Guy. I like the kid. I used to think he was an annoying try-hard, but since I’ve been on a team with him, a lot has happened, I’m a lot less cynical, and I have to admit, he knows what he’s doing. And he really cares about his teammates.  He’s determined to prove the whole world wrong about him. He proved me wrong, at least. I owe him quite a bit. How about this, you can at least say if you agree or disagree with me on that. Just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”

This time, it was Kakashi who rolled his eyes. “You and Guy both speak your mind too much. That’s a flaw, not a strength.”

“And you have the emotional depth of a kiddy pool,” Genma responded, turning back around and walking forward. “Which is a strength for a ninja! Good on you! No one’s ever going to pry any info out of you.” Genma offered a full skewer of dango to Kakashi. “Want one?”

“I’m not taking off my mask.”

“Paranoid, too.” He withdrew the offer with a chuckle. “Aren’t you just the perfect little shinobi? I wasn’t really curious about whatever you have under there. I’m not here because Guy wants me to spy on you and report back about whatever you’re hiding under there, if that’s what you think.”

“Even if you told him what was under my mask, he couldn’t recognize—"

“— _If_ ,” Genma interrupted, still sounding uninterested as he looked over the empty dango skewer in his hand. There was a hint of a threat to his tone now, as if Genma would really do something. It was the first time in this conversation that Genma had dropped all pretense of levity, “My teammate did happen to have any issues that would lead to anyone considering him a liability or worse, I don’t think I would mention it to anyone. Especially not when we’re in the middle of a war, and some of us have to worry about just how expendable we are.”

An uncomfortable silence settled between the two of them again, because honestly, there was nothing to argue against. Genma probably wasn’t wrong about that. They were at war. Wars had casualties and wars had sacrifices. Kakashi was the last person who would need to be reminded of that.

Genma just trudged on, shrugging off the weight of his own words, like it was all inconsequential to him after all.

They came across a small clearing in the middle of the forest. A large wooden stump was set up as a training post in the middle of it, and the nicks and dents in showed that it was very frequently used. Aside from that, it was a pretty plain place.

“Here we are.” Genma vaguely gestured around with his stick.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

“This is Guy’s favorite place to train. He always comes here when he feels like he needs extra practice,” Genma explained, leaping up airily to take a seat on top of the stump. He folded his legs and leaned his head against the palm of his hand. He made the top of a wooden post look like a comfortable place to lounge.

“…Well, it usually is,” Genma continued. “I have no idea where he was the week before the finals. All he told me was that he had to go somewhere he wouldn’t be found so he wouldn’t get in trouble for practicing a forbidden technique. I think he was under the impression that forbidden technique actually means anything, legally. But now that that’s over, he’ll probably come back here first thing.”

Genma finally pulled out the scroll and unrolled it partially, scanning over the words. In one deft movement, he cut the paper cleanly in two with the toothpick in his mouth. “…I meant to switch back to the senbon to do that. I almost frayed the edges,” he mumbled to himself, putting the scroll away and tossing the cut “page” to Kakashi.

Kakashi caught it and turned it over curiously —it was in Guy’s handwriting; boldly inked letters clear on the flimsy page, titled on top, “The Eight Gates!!!!!!!!”. It wasn’t exactly a scholarly account of anything, but Guy’s notes looked thorough, at least.

“Guy gave it to me at the start of the last round. Said that since we fight together, it would be good for me to know how his technique works too. I’ll have to get faster to keep up with it.”

“He gave you this before he knew if he was going to have to fight you or not?”

Kakashi looked skeptical, but Genma grinned again, taking the toothpick out of his mouth to replace it with a proper metal senbon. “Luckily that never had to come up! You have my thanks, Kakashi-sama.”

Unlike Guy, when Genma was being obnoxious, Kakashi suspected he did so on purpose. Kakashi turned his attention to the page in front of him rather than continue going around in circles with him.

The page ended cut off after the notes on the second gate, the Gate of Healing. “Eight gates?”

Genma shrugged again. Now that he’d said what he wanted to say, he looked ready to fall asleep and fall right off that post. “I’m not about to give you his notes on all eight. I don’t know if you two are friends or not, but you’re definitely rivals. I can’t give away all of Guy’s secrets just like that. He told me to keep at least the final one secret, but I don’t think I need to show you seven either.”

Kakashi stared at a doodle of a body with several dots along it. Two of the dots were inside the head of the figure –along with a scrawled out note, _Think really hard to find these! You can do it!_ That part was Duy’s handwriting.

The rest of the dots were in spots along the body, with a separate note scrawled pointing to them:

_These are harder to find! Find a way to memorize them!_

Those self-inflicted scars along his back and his abdomen immediately made sense. The only thing Guy was hiding was his training with a forbidden technique and his ridiculous method of keeping note of where to focus his energy to. Kakashi wasn’t missing something deep and all-important that was going to make him watch someone else break down and become weak.

Kakashi felt a strange mixture of emotions bubbling up in his chest. He was annoyed, furious, elated — _relieved_. This was nothing. This was Guy being Guy.

And of course, he was. The little kid who challenged him to the same losing battles countless time, the little kid whose main concern the morning of the finals was what shape breakfast should be in, and what did and didn’t constitute a point in their imaginary score.

He should have known he didn’t have to worry about Guy.

Kakashi inwardly released a breath, beyond relieved, even if he refused to show it in any external emotion.

For his part, Genma didn’t seem interested in searching Kakashi for a reaction anymore. He seemed much more interested in prodding at the training post underneath him with his foot. As usual, he was the one to break the silence between them. “Hm… Did you know Guy’s killed a man before?” Genma interjected smoothly.

As much as Kakashi wanted to ignore him, that caught his attention. Their eyes met and Genma offered him an awkward grin. “What, curious? Sorry, there’s really no good way to work that into a conversation. But it’s more important to say than just that Guy’s using a forbidden technique you probably don’t want to copy. They were jonin, from another village. Three men, if you want to count the ones I helped with, since really all I did for those was finish the job. Definitely no more than three, yet.”

Genma frowned pensively, folding his arms across his chest.

“Well, there’s a little more to the story than that. I’m starting too late. I don’t like telling long stories though…” Genma groaned, rolling the senbon in his mouth while he tried to parse through a way to say few enough words. “It was a D-rank mission. A really simple one that was offering a pretty high pay from the client, so we weren’t complaining. Ebisu said it was beneath him, and that Guy and I could handle it on our own. And that was fair enough, we were just running through missions so we could qualify for the chunin exams anyway. —The people checking the missions need to check their intel better. The ‘client’ was an enemy spy, and they planned to grab a few genin and see if there was any information that they could torture out of them. As much as we looked down on Guy before, the one who ended up getting captured was me during an ambush. Man, I thought I was going to die! I didn’t think Guy would run back and chase after them to get _me_ out of there. He fought until a man over twice his height and way above his rank stopped moving.”

Kakashi arched an eyebrow, rolling up the paper in his hands. “What’s the point of telling me that?”

“Depends. If you hate him, I guess it’s a warning that he can handle himself. If you like him… Well, you asked what’s up with me and Guy. I wouldn’t expect you to know what I mean when I say this, but Guy really is just a kid,” Genma shrugged. “His hands were trembling like crazy once that was over. His whole body was. He looked like he was about to cry —but only after he asked me if I was alright. He hadn’t even registered what had happened until then. Just rushed in, didn’t even flinch, didn’t stop fighting until he somehow managed to pull through. He gave me a huge speech about why, but for the life of me, I still can’t understand why he cared that much. They’d get a new teammate to replace me if they really needed it. He couldn’t see it that way at all. At the time, he didn’t shake or ask me anything except for how I was. He told me he was going to get stronger if that was what it took to make it so we wouldn’t have to do things like that at all anymore. But he said that without hesitation, with blood on his hands.”

Genma twirled his senbon idly, pausing like he had to think about something.

“When we got back and finished the report, Guy asked me some other questions. He asked if he had done something unforgivable to those ninjas and their families. He asked if he was supposed to feel so sick about it. That came up one more time. Not the same—I’m not a damsel, you know what I’m trying to say. We’re at war, and we’re all shinobi. We’ll be growing up fast and dying young. But if he was willing to grow up that fast to help a guy like me, I figured I should try and grow up a little faster for his sake too. That’s why we’re a little more of a team now. Guy takes point, and I’m his backup. It’s my job to gauge what’s coming and decide what I should handle and what I can leave up to him. I do risk assessment and try to make sure not to leave Guy with more than he can handle. Make sure nothing gets past him. Scope out what’s coming…” Genma stared very pointedly at Kakashi.

“If _you_ do your job right, neither of you should have to worry about dying young.”

“How optimistic!” Genma laughed. “Not everybody’s a prodigy. Some of us graduated this young because they needed more cannon fodder on the battlefields for the war. If my team does our job right, we _will_ die young. Or something. That’s what Ebisu says.” Genma shrugged again, seemingly unconcerned by the heavy weight of his words again. “Why? You care if I keep Guy alive or not?” Genma added in a quiet voice.

“From the looks of it, he’s the one keeping you alive.”

“I guess you’ve got me there!” Genma brought his hands up, palms facing Kakashi, as if he was admitting defeat again. “I’m talking too much! I already said that I hate long stories, too! Forgive me, Kakashi-sama?”

“Uh-huh…” Crossing his arms over his small chest, he fixed Genma with a cynical expression.

Genma shrugged, placing his hands inside of the pockets of his coat and hopping down from his post. “I already said this, but congratulations on your victory! Guy cares a lot about you, so don’t do anything too reckless with your new rank!”

Genma sauntered off, leaving Kakashi to his own devices at the small training ground.

If that had been Genma’s way of explaining his fixation with Guy, he’d done a terrible job. If he’d intended to leave Kakashi with way more questions than answers, then as much as Kakashi hated to admit to himself, Genma had succeeded there.

Kakashi was broken out of his musings by a certain voice calling out to him.

“You’re not wearing a green vest!”

Guy.

Kakashi had expected Guy to be weak and slow —more than usual. After all, he was in pretty bad condition after the chunin exams, and even if it hadn’t killed him, it was enough to make him have to stay in the hospital overnight. Yesterday, he had seemed so frail that he might break, and he’d been completely unresponsive earlier.

“You’re not wearing a green anything,” Kakashi said back.

Guy didn’t miss a beat, hanging upside-down from his branch and holding his arms behind his back. He was clearly happy for the company, and pleasantly surprised to see someone else here.

Most importantly, Guy looked as alive as ever. Kakashi eyed him skeptically. Guy responded with a grin and jumped down from his branch, landing soundlessly beside him. His loose white shirt rippled slightly at the movement, but Kakashi noticed that it was tucked in now. “I thought you’d look different, but you don’t! I’ve changed more than you, Rival.”

All things considered, he would rather hear that than whatever Guy would say if he saw Kakashi actually trying to wear that oversized vest again. Kakashi put his hands in his pockets and offered Guy a passive shrug. “It doesn’t matter which of us won. They didn’t have a vest in my size. You’re not much bigger than me.”

“So, what are you saying? That we’re still little, huh? Still full of our childish youth and vitality! That we still have a lot of growing up to do!”

Kakashi leaned back as Guy leaned closer in, awfully excited about those possibilities. “The vest is still a formality. I outrank you now. You and everyone else from our class. I’m not a kid.”

“Ha! That’s fair! I guess it’s just me being left behind for now!” Guy straightened up, considered moving his arms to pose, but ultimately decided not to pull them from behind his back yet. “That’s fine! I’ll catch up to you! No matter how long it takes! And now the score is six to one! I’m not letting that get me down, either! I’m really happy for you, Rival! So, here!”

Kakashi was greeted with a very large, haphazard bouquet of wildflowers, wrapped up in two bandanas. Guy had clearly picked them out and wrapped them by himself. Maybe the boys should have to take that flower arranging class at the academy after all, or at least the boys with more time on their hands, because this wasn’t Guy’s first bouquet, and he hadn’t improved on this skill at all.

“Thank you, Kakashi!”

For a second, Kakashi wondered if Guy was thanking Kakashi for glaring at those chunin, but Guy was quick to clarify.

“—Thank you for fighting me with all your power! It was a good, fun fight! I feel more prepared to fight even harder the next chance I get! You might have bested me again, moving your rank up before me, but I swear,” he stuck his thumb up and grinned, and that obnoxiously weird thing where the sun glinted just right off his teeth happened. “I’ll catch up to you! We’re still rivals, Rival! I’ll surpass—No! I’ll walk side by side with you as equals yet! Don’t you forget it! That’s my super manly promise to you!”

“That’s all these are for?”

Guy nodded, and Kakashi furrowed his eyebrows, trying to reconcile the image of Guy holding a big bouquet of handpicked wildflowers with the image of Guy, on a mission, fighting to the death. “You really don’t care how the others treat you, do you?”

“Who are the others?” The question sounded sincere, but something about the way Guy kept looking at him made it a little difficult for Kakashi to get a read off him. Kakashi simply accepted the flowers, content to drop the issue, but Guy continued.

“I know the difference. Between people cheering me on like Papa and Genma and Sakumo-san—” Kakashi glared at him at the mention of that name, but Guy continued, “And people cheering me on like Ebisu and everyone who laughs. But they get really frustrated when they think I don’t! That’s better than how they feel when I get mad and argue about it! As long as there’s at least one person who understands me, I’ll be okay. You don’t have to worry about me!”

“I didn’t say I worry about you,” Kakashi cut in defensively.

“Not worry as in ‘ _worry_ ,’” Guy quickly backtracked, shaking his head vigorously, “I mean worry as in— You get it, right, Kakashi? I’m sure you do! After all, you work as hard as me and Papa do! You understand both me and my Papa! So, no matter what the others say, even if I’m still a genin when I grow up, and you’re Hokage, I’ll still chase after you! No matter what the others say!” His clumsy attempt to change the subject.

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully, gaze drifting down to the bouquet in his hands. “You don’t act like someone who has a body count.”

“I don’t…?” Guy blinked and paused mid-step. Then he shook his head and grinned, eyes sparkling as he continued, “Oh! You’ve been talking to Genma! I’m glad! Are you two friends now? Genma’s my friend, and you’re my best friend, so it would be really neat if my friends were friends! Think of all the fun we can have together! You and Genma have a lot in common, you know!”

Kakashi’s only response to that was a baffled, mildly insulted look.

Guy cleared his throat. “—I guess that’s beside the point. How do people with body counts act? Do they follow all those rules for shinobi that you talked about?” Guy asked curiously, in a serious, almost sad way.

“You and everyone should follow those rules either way. And you should act like you’re a threat and not a nuisance.”

“I think I’d rather be seen as a nuisance in my own village.” Guy, seemingly just then self-aware, scratched the back of his head shyly and continued, “But what I want to act like most is a youthful ninja and Kakashi’s rival, not either of those things! I want people to acknowledge me, not run away!”

“…Did you tell your dad?”

“Tell him what?”

“About your mission. With Genma.”

Guy seemed like he was thinking something over. Maybe whether or not to play dumb. “I didn’t tell him yet. I don’t think… he’s ever had to do that. I don’t think he would say he’s angry at me or disappointed in me, but… I think he would be sad. I don’t want to make him sad. He noticed that something was up with me when I got back, and made me the spiciest curry ever, but he didn’t ask me any questions. He just told me that he was proud of me. Even though I didn’t say anything, I think he knows. No matter what everybody else says, Papa’s actually really smart.”

“I guess he is. My father was with me during my first kill, so I didn’t exactly have to tell him anything,” Kakashi said vaguely. He didn’t plan on going into detail.

Guy didn’t ask him to. Instead, the grin returned to his face and he said, “Papa said, shinobi or not, I’m still a kid and shouldn’t be in a rush to throw that away, no matter what I do on missions!”

Kakashi felt obligated to return the smile. “Duy says some good things.”

“He does!” Guy’s grin softened and he shifted timidly. “He’s cool. The coolest. You were right, like you always are! It’s nice to know there’s at least one person in the world who agrees with me about that, Rival. For you, for my team, for my village… I’ll be strong and do my best. To protect what’s precious to me. But for now, I’m still a kid. That’s what Papa says, and I believe in him. I’m not ready to prove him wrong yet.” Guy absentmindedly rubbed his cheek, seeming surprised not to find yesterday’s swollen wound on there. “Maybe that’s why I couldn’t pass the exam yet.”

Kakashi scoffed, “The reason you lost was because _I_ was there, nothing else.” An attempt at leveling with him. Guy took in stride, relaxing and laughing it off.

“Of course! Silly me! Before I forget to mention it! Don’t worry, Rival, I’ll be sure to get you a proper congratulatory gift for becoming a chunin, too! The flowers are just my thanks for our match! A man shouldn’t try to stiff his companions out of everything they deserve! I’ll be sure to pick out a proper gift for you!”

“What kind of gift would that be?”

Resting his chin on his hand, Guy mused aloud, “Fashionable, breathable jumpsuits like mine and Papa’s? Handmade leg warmers…?”

Apparently, the bouquet was the best idea he’d had.

“Here’s an idea. Just show me how you train to open the eight inner gates.”

The words brought a bright smile to his face, and it wasn’t long before he was nodding his head, practically bouncing where he stood. “Of course! That’s a gift I can happily give you! I’ll show you anytime! Except for the last one, where you have to,” Guy trailed off, abruptly deciding not to finish that thought. Kakashi would look into it later. “—Anyway, I’ll teach you sometime! The first gate isn’t too bad, actually! I was planning to explain them to you eventually!”

“Why would you plan on explaining your forbidden jutsu to your rival?”

“Well, it’s like with Genma. I want to be able to fight effectively by your side too, so the best way to be teammates is to know how we work! No big surprises like me suddenly moving too fast for Genma to aim for something without hitting me! We’re rivals, but we aren’t enemies! We can train together while I perfect the lotus! I won’t mess up next time! And one day, when you’re backing me up, you’ll know what to expect!”

Kakashi groaned with exaggerated offense. “You must be kidding. Even if we ever had a mission together, I’d be the one in charge. You would have to follow _my_ lead.”

Guy laughed, “—So confident! You really are my man of destiny! I couldn’t have a better rival in the whole village—the whole world! We’re going to stand far above them all! That’s why no one anyone else says matters! I’m not proving anything to them! I know me!”

“…Well. _Just_ for today, I actually will be backing you up. You can prove whatever you have to prove then.”

Guy jumped a few feet back in surprise. “You’re backing me up today?”

“Don’t tell me you _forgot_ ,” Kakashi practically scolded, “I told you yesterday.”

“Ohhh, you’re talking about your plan! The plan you mentioned back at the finals! Of course, I didn’t forget! The whole reason I broke out of the hospital as soon as I could was because you had a plan! So, we should focus on that first! I may have failed to stand out and look very intimidating at the finals, but I still want to go through with it! I want to make them change their mind about my papa!”

“You didn’t.”

“Huh?”

Kakashi shrugged and averted his gaze, staring at the beaten-down training pole instead of at Guy. “You didn’t fail. You stood out.”

“…I didn’t?” Kakashi wasn’t sure what face he was making right now, but Guy definitely sounded incredulous.

“You did look impressive. You changed the mind of everyone who was ever going to give you a second thought in the first place,” Kakashi explained curtly, “You did exactly what I told you to.”

“You really mean that?”

“I heard Asuma’s team talking about you after Duy carried you out. Kurenai and Raido aren’t sure they could beat you in a fair fight, and Asuma didn’t say anything, which is all but admitting he’s not sure he could beat you either.”

“Uh-huh?”

“Genma said I got lucky. Ebisu… well, he woke up, eventually. He’s fine. You saved him.”

“Uh-huh…?”

“Rin said you weren’t as impressive as me, and she knew I’d win, but you got closer than you usually did.”

“Uh… huh…”

“I heard Anko talking to her team about you, too. She’s interested in you.”

“Uhh…huuhh…”

“Minato-sensei told me to tell you that you did your best and you shouldn’t feel bad—”

“—What about you, Kakashi?!?!” Guy said, throwing his arms into the air. Kakashi laughed at his friend’s impatience. For a moment, Guy looked slighted, but he cracked a smile himself a few seconds later. “Did I change your mind, Rival? Did I grow up in your eyes? At least a little? Am I as cool as Papa is, now?”

“Mm…” Putting his hand on his chin and closing his eyes pensively, Kakashi pretended he had to think about it. “No.”

Guy took it in stride. “Well, then! Next time, I’ll impress you for sure! Then I’ll be able to say that I haven’t failed!”

“Oh?” Kakashi smirked, opening a single eye to glance at Guy, “When it comes to changing my mind… Didn’t you say you wanted to do something specific for that?”

Guy blinked.

“Some self-rule you made when you were younger, I think… What was it you were saying before…?” He crossed his arms, one silver brow rising. A hint of mischief showed in the smile of his eyes. “Something about not being the same kid you were before?”

“—Those chunin!” Guy exclaimed, hitting his fist in his palm in realization.

“You finally remember the plan,” Kakashi rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips, making a show of how exasperated he was by how long it took. “That was why I had a plan in the first place. Unless you wanted to give up on that now that the exams are over?”

Guy bristled. “I didn’t say that,” he muttered.

“You didn’t? But if you really don’t care what they think… I thought you said nothing else matters…” he teased, a playful smirk on his face.  “So, I guess you don’t want to get back at those chunin after all? That’s pretty mature of you, Guy…”

Drawing in a breath, mind made up, Guy met his gaze with a determined grin. “Like I said, we still have a long way to go before we’re _really_ grown up! What’s wrong with being a little childish sometimes while we’re still in the thralls of our youth! And! It’s not about them!”

Guy seemed pretty resolute about that.

Kakashi remembered when Sakumo asked him why he had rushed in to save Guy, when Genma asked him what he wanted from Guy. Kakashi remembered how he couldn’t give either of them a real answer. “Why do you want to do anything, then?”

“Hmmm… I’ll tell you once it’s all over! After your plan makes them stop looking down on Papa!” He offered Kakashi a smirk, taking his hands reassuringly. “Consider it another self-rule of mine!”

Kakashi’s lips pursed slightly, though the corners of his mouth tugged up, a matching smirk lighting up his face at his challenge. “Good answer.”

“Thanks!” Now that that was out of the way, Guy spoke quickly, in a rush to finally do something. “So —how do we find them? I know you’re probably better at picking them out of a crowd than I am, but we still have the whole village to look through.”

“I can track them. I spent long enough having to be around those idiots. I doubt they’re out on a mission or in hiding.”

“I don’t even know their names. And I can’t ask Papa, he wouldn’t approve of this at all.”

“We don’t need to know their names. I’m not going to bother memorizing the names of a couple of nobodies, anyway. And I know you aren’t going to.”

If Guy minded the quip or even noticed it, he didn’t say. He just clutched his hands into fists at his side, looking down at his hands with fierce determination and a manic grin. “Then, what is my job? I’m going to do my part of this as well as I can, full power! Just tell me what I need to do! If it’s for Papa, I’m prepared to do anything!”

He sounded so earnest, Kakashi almost hesitated to ask, “Do you know how to do the transformation jutsu?”

Guy’s grin faltered just slightly. “O-of course! Ebisu made sure to tutor me in that first! He said that…” Guy suddenly turned bright red, evidently embarrassed. Kakashi really didn’t want to know what Ebisu had said that was so blatant it made Guy blush. “—Anyway, I can do that technique now! Ebisu had really weird examples he wanted me to practice out of this really weird magazine of his, but I can’t do those! I can turn into Genma or Papa!”

“Only those two?”

Guy squished his own cheeks and tried to look serious while doing it. “Because they were the only two who really let me… I can turn into an ANBU guard?” Guy added, gesturing like he was putting on a mask. “The guys with the hoods and masks!”

The fact that Guy was naming people whose identities and faces were already hidden was… interesting. Kakashi shook his head. “That’s good enough. Turn into Duy.”

Guy nodded affirmatively. He cupped his own cheeks and tugged them experimentally, then covered his face with hands, rubbing his temples and tracing down to his chin. “Okay!” Guy turned away from Kakashi and quickly formed the hand seals. “Transformation jutsu!”

The figure from the resulting cloud of smoke looked like Duy from behind, at least. Guy didn’t turn back around to face him, though.

Guy tugged and felt his face again and shook his head, then formed the hand seal again. “Transformation justu!” Another puff of smoke obscured him, but Kakashi couldn’t see what changed from his vantage point. Guy repeated the actions twice more, then nodded to himself and turned to face Kakashi. “Ta-dah! Look at me! What do you think?” Kakashi scrutinized the transformation. It wasn’t perfect. The suit and the hair were fine, and so was the build, mostly, but the face wasn’t quite there. The mouth, the eyelashes, mostly the eyes —Guy’s pupils had always been bigger than his dad’s, a little darker too, and they hadn’t changed at all from the transformation. “Well? Pretty impressive, right, Rival?”

It was close enough. Better than Kakashi had assumed he was capable of, at least. Better than anything those two chunin should be able to see through. Nitpicking the details would just waste time they could use getting this over with instead. Seeming flustered from Kakashi’s analyzing stare, Guy fidgeted, something that made him look even less like Duy. “Well—!”

 “You look just like him,” Kakashi said, and then, when Guy let a prideful grin spread over Duy’s face, “Don’t look so smug. Most kids master that jutsu _before_ they graduate.”

Guy made a point to look even more smug, which only looked more out of place under Duy’s moustache. “Well, I’m not most kids! But I’ve mastered it now, and that’s proof that I’ve improved! So, that’s a great reason to look smug, I think!”

“You sound just like him, too.”

“So, I really have this jutsu down?” Guy tugged at his own cheeks again.

“Well, the plan’s pretty obvious from here, right?”

Guy let go of his cheeks and blinked down at Kakashi with a confused glance, head tilting to one side. “You still haven’t _told_ me a plan, Rival.”

“You can’t figure it out from here? It’ll be like our game of cards. We’re shinobi —we don’t have to play fair; we just have to win. It wasn’t good enough for me to fight your battle or for you to fight Duy’s; in fact, that was pointless. But how floored do you think those two will be if they lose a fight to ‘the eternal genin’ himself? Even if it’s not true, as long as it looks that way to them, that’ll get the message across.”

Guy listened to his words with a contemplative expression. Kakashi wondered if it was something too roundabout and duplicitous to satisfy Guy’s goal, but when he finally spoke, he simply said, “If I’m Papa, then who are you going to be?”

No questions about whether this was the right way to go about it or mentions of cheating. Guy was fully on board, then. Kakashi smiled devilishly. “Isn’t it obvious?” He made the hand seal for the transformation and disappeared behind a puff of white smoke.

Guy blinked in surprise as the smoke cleared. “That’s… you’re… me?!”

Admittedly, Kakashi was curious to see if Guy’s awful memory even counted here, and from Guy’s reaction, it apparently did. He supposed he could give Guy credit for recognizing what Kakashi was going for, but either he didn’t notice that the transformation’s face was nothing like Guy’s or he couldn’t notice it. “I’ll be fighting in your place this time. This time, ‘Guy’ is going to be able to hit those men back instead of just talking big.”

“Um…” Guy looked Kakashi up and down. “Why are you…”

“The same reason you’re fighting for Duy.”

“Because I love Papa?” Guy asked, obviously confused. Guy blushed sheepishly at his own words and quickly added, “—No, that’s not what I was going to ask! Why are you _that_ Guy? I mean, that Guy isn’t—” Guy pouted and folded his arms in frustration. “That’s the wrong me!”

Kakashi imitated Guy’s earlier confused head tilt, which only made Guy angrier. “How is it the wrong you?”

“Because I’m older than that now! I cut my hair and I’m not that short or soft anymore! And I haven’t worn that outfit in forever! I’ve officially embraced the green jumpsuit!” Not a word about the face.

“Are you sure?” Kakashi asked, feigning surprise. He played with a lock of his hair. “This is how I remember you.”

“I’m _definitely_ taller at least! I told you that already!”

“You’re Duy’s height right now, how can you tell?”

“That’s… um.” Guy seemed to actually consider the nonsensical argument for a second.

 Taking pity on him, Kakashi redid the transformation properly this time. “Better?”

“I still think I’m more muscular and handsome than that,” Guy mumbled.

“I’ll have to be sure to act as delusional as you are so I don’t blow my cover,” Kakashi said in a fake-pleasant tone.

Guy grinned. His was less lopsided than Duy’s smile, but Kakashi wondered if anyone besides himself would notice something like that about the eternal genin. He wondered if Guy himself noticed it. “You’re so weird.”

“ _Anyway_ ,” Kakashi turned their focus back to the issue at hand, “If you challenge them like this and you still lose, that’ll make you and your dad look even more pathetic. They are still two chunin and you are still a genin. We have to wipe the floor with them or there’s no point to this.”

“That’s a good point…” Guy started doing a few practice kicks and punches aimed at the air, testing out the range and power of his new form. He shook his hair and frowned, not used to his father’s hairstyle either. Guy finally stopped mid-kick and grinned to Kakashi. “I’ll be able to compensate for the difference!” he called. “And I know I definitely won’t embarrass Papa. Because you’ll be there!”

Kakashi arched his eyebrows. “You think I’ll bail you out?”

“And make it look like Papa has to be rescued by his own kid? No! What I meant is,” Guy posed in what he probably assumed made him look cool. His teeth glinted in the sunlight. “You’ll be there, and I want to look cool in front of you! I can really feel a fire light in my veins when I know you’re watching me! There’s no one I’ll let myself lose to as long as I’m fighting them with you!”

 It reinforced what Guy said before; he wasn’t as much of a child or as much of an idiot as Kakashi originally had him pegged —he actually knew what people said and thought about him, and he knew how it felt to hold a life in his hands and choose to end it.

Chunin or not, Guy was a ninja, too. He could have chosen to disappear at any time.

It also reminded Kakashi what he’d always known about his rival. That he was ridiculously, thoughtlessly, recklessly brave.

With someone like Guy, even if he did know enough to break his promise, maybe his word still carried weight after all. “Alright. I’ll hold you to that.”

“Please do!”

“And Guy,” Kakashi’s hands weaved into a hand seal with his middle and index fingers pointed.

Guy reflexively mimicked him and declared, “I know that one, it’s tiger!”

Kakashi nodded. “There’s one more jutsu I need to teach you before we go.”

* * *

“Found them.”

Guy squinted, looking in the same direction that Kakashi was. He wouldn’t see much from up there, perched on a rooftop, but now that he thought about it, he wondered what Guy could be looking for in the first place. Certainly not their appearance. “You can see them?”

“I can _smell_ them,” Kakashi clarified. “We’re close.”

Guy sniffed the air attentively, as if his sense of smell was as naturally sharp as Kakashi’s was. He seemed very determined to pick up the same scent Kakashi had. Guy has surprised him before —maybe one day he would pick it up and it’d help him get around whatever his problem with faces was. Kakashi smiled to himself for a moment before leaping off the ground and onto Guy’s back.

“Wha—Rival!” Guy braced the muscles in his legs, feet evenly spread, in order to support the younger boy and not get knocked down. He’d really rather not fall off this rooftop. “—You aren’t very good at warning people, are you?!”

“Too heavy for you?” Kakashi teased.

“No! I’m strong!” Guy straightened up indignantly to prove his point, moving his arms to properly support Kakashi’s legs. “I’m just not used to being tall! My balance is off!”

“You’re going to lose if you’re that thrown off from your transformation. And no one’s going to believe you’re Duy if you can’t carry your son like he always does.”

“Hmph! I’ll figure it out, then! Yosh, which way are we headed?”

“There. Round the corner, take a left, so it looks like we ‘just ran into them.’”

Guy jumped off the roof, landing gracefully for someone who kept complaining about being too tall. He earned a few bewildered stares from passersby about his sudden appearance, but that was par for the course for Duy and Guy.

“Let’s go!” Guy shouted, dashing forward and making a sharp turn. It wasn’t exactly a casual walk, but it was par for the course with Duy, too.

“Those two,” Kakashi said quietly, a whisper, barely audible, just before Guy ran past the two chunin. Guy didn’t answer him, but Kakashi could tell he heard him from the way his muscles tensed up. “No turning back now. Are you ready?”

“Mm-hmm!” Guy nodded emphatically, making Duy’s long hair bounce.

“Act casual. Or casual for Duy, at least…”

Guy slid to a stop, grinned a blinding grin, and laughed the most unnatural laughter Kakashi had ever heard come from him. Guy was about to say something to greet the chunin, but Kakashi beat him to it.

“—Ah! You two! You’re the proctors from the exams! And the chunin from before then, too!” Kakashi tried to sound as emotional and squeaky as Guy did when he got excited, but he wanted to project an air of certainty. If Guy was doing this to artificially project strength for Duy, Kakashi was doing it to project competence for Guy. If “Guy” was the one who recognized them, that would at least lessen the embarrassment of Guy asking who he was after getting clocked yesterday.

The two chunin looked up at Guy and Kakashi with a bored expression. “Hm? Well, if it isn’t the _two_ eternal genin!”

“Playing ninja again, Duy?”

“Hello to you two, too!” Guy said, tone even and controlled.

“Too calm,” Kakashi whispered, so Guy tried again, louder and more excited this time.

“It’s been a while! Too long, really! Thanks for cheering us on! Again!” Stilted, but more like Duy now.

“You haven’t really seen them since you were on a team together as genin, huh, Papa?” Kakashi added conversationally.

“…Eh?” Guy grimaced, his eyebrow twitching. Thinking about it, Duy probably wouldn’t be as forthcoming with Guy about that information as he had been when Kakashi prompted him to explain before. “O—oh course, I’ve seen them since then, but not as much!” Guy’s attempted recovery was shaky as he tried to reconcile the information with everything those two had said before.

Helpfully, the chunin just laughed it off. One of them –one with long brown hair –said, “What, going senile already, Duy?”

“He is getting pretty old, isn’t he?” The other one, the bald one, sneered.

“Oh yeah, he is! I almost forgot! The chunin exams made it seem like it was just yesterday that Duy failed his, too! Your kid inherited all your weaknesses _and_ those lame eyebrows!”

“I’m still amazed that some poor dame let you knock her up! She was smart enough not to stick around after the kid popped out, though!”

“The eyebrows scared her away. No, maybe they scared her _death_ once the baby came out with them,” they lamented, mocking in their laughter.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes, far from his usual composed self at the sight of the people he despised so much. Kakashi could feel Guy shivering. At first, he thought it was because Guy was angry too, but when he saw Guy’s hair stand up on end, Kakashi became away of the static electricity sparking from Kakashi’s fingertips.

Guy shook his head to fix Duy’s hairstyle, joining in the chunin’s laughter. “The battles during the exams were surely incredible! I’m sure all the genin did the best they could! It breaks my heart that I couldn’t see my beloved, amazing, great son, who I love, and who should calm down,” Guy wasn’t subtle at all. “While he was in action yesterday! It breaks my heart that I couldn’t be there cheering him on louder than everyone else…!”

Guy had his father’s demeanor down well. The tears were a little too subdued, but Kakashi doubted anyone else was going to notice that. “But it warms my heart to know that my two old _teammates_ were there to watch my son get so close to his goal and fight with all the burning youth in his soul! He and his rival were impressive, weren’t they? Truly the perfect pair, those two!”

“The perfect pair?” The brunette sounded incredulous.

“No, no, he’s right,” Baldy said. “Opposites attract, right? The elite genius prodigy and the total failure! You don’t get more opposite than that!”

“Still! Even if you’re joking, I’m pretty sure that Hatake kid is sicker of the little brat than anyone is!”

“—I’m _not_ ,” Kakashi cut in, sounded indignant, and only after it came out, he realized how desperate that would sound coming from Guy, insisting that Kakashi didn’t hate him, instead of coming from Kakashi, who reflexively was denying it himself. “Kakashi’s not sick of me. We’re close. He probably likes me too much,” he muttered.

“—Hey, I just got an excellent idea! For old time’s sake, the three of us should have a good spar!” Guy said, quickly, sounding desperate to change the subject. Right, that was the point. A spar.

“Four of us,” Kakashi corrected. “Right, Papa? Don’t forget about me!”

“Of course, my beloved son! That’ll be even better! A two-on-two match! What do you say, boys? Up to a friendly two-on-two spar? For old time’s sake!”

The two chunin exchanged amused glances, sizing the situation up.

“We got time.” Baldy was in.

“Yeah, you wanna go? Let’s do it!” Brunette was apparently so excited that he couldn’t wait for a proper venue. He swung immediately, and Guy had to weave back to quickly let Kakashi jump off his back. Now that Guy had both hands free, he and the chunin traded punches and kicks. Guy’s blocks were cutting it fine. He held him back adamantly, Guy’s form was skillful and sharp, even when it was obvious to Kakashi that he was adjusting to compensate for the longer limbs and higher center of gravity.

Guy swung wide and high on his right.

The brunette braced his head, but it was a feint, and he received a devastating shot to the solar plexus. He hacked and dropped down.

Brunette panted from his spot on the floor. He was flat on his back, staring up at Kakashi who was standing above him, smirking. This was a sight Kakashi had seen before, but it would be the first time this would see who he thought was Guy looking down on him.

“You’re done already? Wow. Papa is so cool,” Kakashi taunted, in a tone that probably sounded too spiteful to be Guy. Guy noticed and shot him a look that could be mistaken for a father silently telling his son to be respectful, instead of a boy silently asking another boy not to completely change his what little reputation he had. Kakashi sticking his tongue out at him in response would be correctly interpreted as a refusal to do either of those things.

“Did _Duy_ just knock you flat on your ass? That’s incredible,” the bald one mocked, standing over his buddy.

“The bastard just got a lucky shot in,” Brunette snapped, pulling himself back up to his feet. “Alright, you want a real fight, Duy? I’ll show you and your brat the difference between a chunin and a genin for real.”

“That’s sounding more like it! Let’s go to a real training ground. We need enough room to wipe the floor with them.” Baldy took off walking and waved for everyone to follow after him.

“Great idea!” Guy agreed. “A proper spar takes advantage of everything it can! We can’t improve ourselves fighting in the alleyways like this! I tell my son that practically every day!”

“Besides, not a lot of room to perform any real ninjutsu here,” Kakashi taunted. Guy shot him a look, so Kakashi pretended to have sparkling eyes and a whimsical spirit as he continued. “A chunin would want to use everything they’ve got, right? I wanna see for myself!”

The two chunin smirked at each other. “We’ll show you, then.”

The walk to the training grounds felt endless. Multiple times, Guy tried to suggest a race — _it’ll be fun_ and _we need a warmup before we get serious_ —but the two brushed him off every time, either with lazy excuses or more laughter.

Kakashi’s self-restraint barely kept him from starting and ending the fight long before they finally arrived to an empty outside training ground. “We’re here! Doesn’t coming here make you feel excited? I can feel the energy and youth running through my veins!” Guy seemed dedicated to upholding the persona of the man who was far too willing to have friendly conversations with everyone.

Kakashi dragged Guy to the other side of the field before Guy dragged this out any longer than it needed to be. Guy offered him a sheepish smile in apology.

Guy and Kakashi stood at one end of the small field, and their opponents stood opposite them with an air of smug confidence.

“Shall we go over the rules?” Guy called.

“No need. This’ll be quick!” Brunette answered.

“Yes,” Kakashi got into position. “It will be.”

“Alright!” Guy fell into a starting position as well —his own, not Duy’s. “Then, who wants to call it?”

“I will.” Baldy called. “Ready, start!”

He’d probably said it that fast so he could try and get a sucker punch in, but Kakashi was the one to attack first, instantly closing the distance between them.

“Konoha Whirlwind,” he yelled, although really all Kakashi delivered was a straightforward kick —a swift, powerful kick, strong enough to send the brunette hurtling backwards and towards the bald one, but not the actual technique Guy called that move.

 “Woah —Hey!” The bald one swiftly dodged the brunette instead of catching him, then stepped forward to meet Kakashi’s counterattack, catching his fist in his open hand and visibly winced in pain. The attack wasn’t as easily brushed off as it had been the last time Baldy fought Guy, that was for sure.

The real Guy —the fake Duy —stepped in to block the Brunette’s attempt at a counter attack. Guy brushed it off without flinching, pulling the brunette forward and off his balance to give Kakashi an opening to retaliate properly. Kakashi gladly took advantage of the openings.

Kakashi cackled, a decidedly very un-Guy-like sound to hear in his voice, but Kakashi was more than sure his opponent was too preoccupied to think too hard about that. Guy had been aggressive when he had been younger anyway, trying to land the initial strike, and failing to hit them even once.

Kakashi had always wanted to see that Guy turn the tables on the chunin, to have them be the ones on the back foot, biting their tongues and eating their own words.

And Guy was more than capable of that now. Compared to the fights that Guy had had to cleverly weave through in the arena yesterday, he made this look practically effortless.

Baldy and brunette exchanged a quick look, and suddenly both were ignoring Kakashi and rushing at Guy, trying to eliminate him first with two simultaneous roundhouse kicks, one aimed at his head and one at his abdomen.

That earned them both a bruised shoulder as Guy caught their legs and hurled both of them to the ground, lifting them off their remaining foot entirely with one arm each like they were little more than ragdolls.

Kakashi laughed, actually managing a proper facsimile of Guy’s giddiness now.

Guy could be impressive, when he wanted to be.

Smirks quickly switched to scowls, “Oh, you are going down, brat!”

Kakashi beckoned them both tauntingly. Brunette sprung back twice as fast, swinging left, right, left again, and Baldy started going through hand seals. Guy dodged the ball of fire aimed their way and closed the distance between them in under a second.

That left Kakashi to deal with Brunette. The man shoved at his chest and he was knocked back slightly, whipping his head back a moment later to dodge as the brunette swung upwards, nearly catching him under the chin. In return Kakashi kicked straight at his stomach and the brunette was sent reeling backwards again, their exchange concluded. He glared down at his little opponent. Kakashi met him with a smirk.

Kakashi closed the distance this time. He threw out a few jabs upward at the much taller man. Brunette avoided them, but Kakashi had expected it. He was at least fast enough to be a chunin, but Kakashi wouldn’t say he was smart enough. It was easy use the punches to funnel him into the movement that would open him up and distract him from the kick Kakashi swept into his side.

The chunin winced from the sharp pain, stumbling as Kakashi followed up with a flurry of blows that knocked him to the ground. Brunette tried to get in a punch of his own, but Kakashi leapt well out of reach before he got the chance.

“That’s over twenty solid hits.” A grin of feigned innocence stretched across Kakashi’s face –Guy’s face, he supposed. The self-rule was officially met. This man had been paid back in full now.

“Should I aim for double now?” he called to Guy, keeping his eyes on the brunette chunin who was pushing himself back up to his feet now. He was already short of breath.

Baldy sprung forward again, this time aiming for Guy’s legs. If Guy was anything, he was quick on his feet. He danced around the move, giving a riposte that the chunin deflected off to the side.

It was Guy’s turn to cackle manically—honestly, it was more like he _giggled_ , the giddy dork —as he blocked and dodged a series of swipes and thrusts. A triumphant Guy pressed the advantage, Baldy sliding onto his back and rolling to get away.

Kakashi turned his attention away from Guy’s half of the fight as his own opponent got back on his feet, lunging at Kakashi again, who this time only barely slid out of the way. Kakashi swung back and clipped the back of his head, bringing out a yowl of pain. A sequence of follow-up swipes was defended against with one hand, while another rubbed at his temple. That was going to use a bruise.

Kakashi parrying and forcing Brunette back was a breeze, and Guy dodged every projectile Baldy tosses at him: ice spikes, pieces of the arena, and fireballs. Every time he got close enough to the chunin to touch him, he tried and fail to throw him back with a wild gust of wind. Guy met and surpassed every move he tried without needing to use ninjutsu at all.

The two chunin vanished and reappeared together farther towards the center of the field. “We’re done playing around,” Baldy muttered angrily, and the two of them started to rush through a sequence of hand seals Kakashi wasn’t familiar with.

Kakashi drew back slightly, unsure what they were planning to do. He had rushed into this without any intel, and even if their barks were worse than their bites —Kakashi really hated comparing any aspect of people like them to dogs, even mentally —they were chunin. He should exercise some level of caution.

Rather than wait and scope out the situation, Guy put his hands together. Kakashi recognized the hand seals and flashed through the same, trying to match his slower pace.

“Lightning Release—”

“Spider Web,” Kakashi mouthed the words silently on the off chance that one of them might hear him. Guy actually did manage to produce some electricity on his own, Kakashi noticed. It danced down his arms and fizzled out and dispersed harmlessly when it hit the ground.

Kakashi shaped the lightning that spread out from him to make it appear like the web had centered around Guy —around _Duy_. The electricity paralyzed the two chunin, making them freeze up before they seemed anywhere close to finished setting up whatever joint jutsu they had.

“Now!” Kakashi formed the tiger seal with his hands so Guy could see.

“Right!” Guy mirrored the action and swiftly got into position behind the brunette with a body flicker. “Our own joint jutsu!”

“Leaf Village Secret Finger Jutsu—” the two of them exclaimed in unison. “One Thousand Years of Death!”

The chunin’s faces contorted in a mixture of surprise and pain, and they shot off like rockets, screaming out in high-pitched voices.

They landed in a crumbled heap on the ground, writhing from that surprise attack.

“You’re not done yet, are you?” Kakashi mocked, going through hand seals again. Concentrated lightning gathered in his hands, sparking and crackling to life threateningly.

“Of course, they aren’t, my beloved son! They promised to show us how amazing chunin truly are!” Guy crossed his arms in front of his face, and suddenly a rush of powerful chakra enveloped him again, less extreme than yesterday’s, but still markedly noticeable. “I’m sure they have more up their sleeves than that! I look forward to a _real_ match from here on out!”

“Good. I have more moves I need to test out, too,” Kakashi said darkly. The flicker of his chakra masked an almost murderous intent, sending a shiver up both of the chunin’s spines.

“A-actually we had a mission,” Baldy managed to squeak out, his voice dry and sharp from his ongoing attempt to stand and back away through the still sharp pain radiating through his body.

“A B-rank!” Brunette added, much more frantic and less desperate to save his image —he took off running at full speed without adding anything more elaborate to the lie than that.

“Hey, wai—we both have to be there!” Baldy chased after his friend, if his pained half-limp could be called a chase.

Guy struck his dumb pose again, with a stupid grin on his face and that threatening chakra dissipating in a second. “Alright! In that case… Just keep cheering us on!”

The two chunin must have heard him, because they picked up the pace and hobbled away faster at the sound of that catchphrase. They probably wouldn’t be seeing it in quite the same light ever again.

Once they were out of sight, Kakashi and Guy stared at each other for a moment before both cracked up, returning to their usual forms in a cloud of smoke.

Guy quivered with excitement. “We won. We won! We won, we won, we won!” Guy bounced, “We won! They ran away in fear of us! I can’t believe we just did that! That was the most deceptive thing I’ve ever done! That was so short! I don’t even remember why I was so scared of them before! I’m learning, Kakashi! I’m becoming a better ninja! A cool, mysterious, sneaky shinobi!”

Kakashi’s arms crossed as he looked at the triumphant genin, a smile of intrigue across his lips. “A good ninja wouldn’t be so giddy over something like that,” Kakashi teased, watching as the hyperactive older boy practically dancing on the spot with glee.

“It’s not just that though! When I fought them the first time, they seemed so huge and unbeatable! And you looked so unreachable! But now— I’ve surpassed them! Now I’m one step closer to reaching you for real, too! That’s the most exciting part! I’m catching up to you, Rival! I even performed your super-secret taijutsu move perfectly!” Guy winked and formed the “tiger” hand seal again. “I’m sure it will be very useful on missions!”

“I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not…” A nervous smile spread on Kakashi’s face.

Guy responded with a mysterious smile, and Kakashi wondered whether he should feel bad for Ebisu or Genma going forward. Kakashi ultimately decided he didn’t care enough either way.

Guy’s smile dropped and he became serious all of a sudden, “Kakashi… Thanks. I’m glad you came with me. No… I’m glad I got to know you! We make a good team! You thought so too, right? The way we fought together was so great! It was truly a combination of our heated friendship!”

When he put it that passionately, Kakashi wasn’t sure how to respond. “I guess… we synced up nicely, oddly enough. It’s a sign that I spend way too much time with you,” he quipped, half-serious himself. He expected Guy to laugh that off too, but Guy just continued where he left off.

“So… That is…” Guy fidgeted again. “Can I have a hug, too? Like you gave my dad?” Kakashi was spared from having to answer that. Guy immediately took it back, even leapt backwards to put some distance between himself and Kakashi now that he felt awkward.  “—J-just kidding, of course you’re way too cool for silly things like that!”

A terrified scream broke the shallow sounds of dead air as Kakashi was still considering his options.

Kakashi and Guy ran to see what had happened, but when they peeked around the corner to see the source, it was simply the two chunin again. They hadn’t managed to get very far after all, despite their so-called mission.

The two chunin had fallen onto their butts, trembling, faces red with fear and exertion and embarrassment, in front of the very confused Duy. “How did you— you were back there— since when were you this _fast_ too?” one of them muttered shakily.

“Did you two need something?” Duy offered a hand to his former teammates, but they just bristled and scooted back.

“—We’re sorry, Duy! No more!”

“We give, we give!”

They jumped up and ran past him.

“He wasn’t that strong before!”

“Not that I think about it… he never really took our taunts seriously; do you think he never fought us seriously either…?!”

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to think about it!” Their voices trailed off.

“Grown men acting like that over a _kancho_ … It almost makes me embarrassed to share a rank with them.” Conceit evident in his tone, Kakashi directed his gaze towards his best friend. Excitement bubbled from the older boy, glimmering in those bright eyes.

“Strong…! Kakashi, they called Papa strong…! We really changed their minds! They looked right at Papa and they didn’t laugh! Ka…Kakashi…!”

Kakashi’s heart skipped a beat again. Maybe he needed more practice using lightning release if it was going to affect him this strongly, since it was definitely a side-effect of that and nothing else.

“Guy. Kakashi.”

Now it was Guy’s turn to shiver as the voice loomed behind him.

“P—Papa! Good morning!” He greeted, trying to sound chipper.

Duy was having none of it. “Would either of you like to explain why those two are so shaken up at the sight of me?”

“We would not like to explain at all,” Guy answered, sincere and not at all sarcastic like Kakashi would have been if he said that.

Duy looked to Kakashi, who simply put his hands in his pockets and shrugged in his best devil-may-care attitude. It was pretty obvious that Duy had put together enough of the pieces on his own, his asking for an explanation was extraneous.

Skipping the part where he got them to explain their misdeeds, Duy went straight to the angry scolding, “That was a reckless thing you did! And it’s not a battle you should have picked in the first place! Things like how others view us and what they say about us behind our backs aren’t what’s important in life! What would drive you to do something like this?!”

Guy frowned and immediately began to apologize, but was cut off by Kakashi answering the rhetorical question, “Because you’re what’s important in our life.”

Guy froze and Duy stared, wide-eyed in shock.

“Right? We had our reasons, Guy. They insulted someone who was better than them. Scum like them need to know their place.” Kakashi tried to sound matter-of-fact and smug about it to mask how embarrassing the words themselves were. “Besides, it was another one of Guy’s self-rules.”

“Right!” Guy finally found his voice again. “We did! It was! Kakashi was just making sure I kept my self-rule to myself! He was being a good friend!”

“Honestly, the two of you…!” Duy seemed stuck between choosing a solemn, serious tone and expression or a tearful, proud one. Ultimately, he chose a strange fusion of the two, fuming and angrily creasing his eyebrows in a glare while crying happy tears and speaking in a joyful voice. “The two of you…! You’re truly two of a kind! I don’t know what to say to you two!”

“—He’s distracted!” Guy jumped and clung to his dad’s back, and he was heavy enough now that his weight made Duy sway backwards. “Help me out, Kakashi!”

Kakashi grinned. Guy really was becoming a sneakier ninja. Kakashi lunched forward and tackled Duy, putting enough force into it to finish the job of knocking Duy off his feet and to the ground.

“Leaf Village Secret Finger Jutsu! A Thousand Years of Tickling!” Guy tickled Duy’s sides, which shocked him enough to make him drop his argument entirely. Duy tried to look angry, but descended into a fit of giggles and pleas for mercy.

“Ah, now I’ve been defeated too! Guy, Kakashi, you’ve won, you’ve won!” He laughed and laughed, cheeks rosy red with glee.

Eventually, Duy managed to pull Guy off of his back, and once Guy was off, Kakashi didn’t put up much of a fight. Duy set Guy down in front of him and held him in place with two firm hands on his shoulders.

“Regardless of this or that!” Duy continued, expression serious now, “Sneaking out of the hospital isn’t something you should get in the habit of, Guy! Leaving the damage unchecked will only make it worse in the future. Your body is your greatest asset. You have to treat it as a valuable weapon all its own. Something wonderful that I passed down to you the day you were born! It’s the most precious thing I could ever pass down to your as my son! So, you have to treat it that way! Understand?”

“Yes, Papa. I’m really sorry. It’s just,” Guy glanced at Kakashi briefly, “I have other things that are precious to me, too, now. Things I have to protect and things I have to prove. Even if it’s just my word. So, if I’m strong now, I want to use my strength to do that!”

Instead of being punished, Guy was pulled into a hug. “I know. You just have so much love in your heart, and it frustrates you that others have so much less. And it’s natural to get overwhelmed by your emotions while you’re young. But when you get older, you’ll understand what I mean when I say pick your battles more carefully than this, Guy.”

Guy returned the hug, burying his face in his father’s chest. Duy glanced to Kakashi curiously.

Kakashi took a step back, “I’ll pass.”

Duy offered him an understanding smile and stood back up, picking Guy up with him. “Then for you, it’s back to the hospital. The medics are not happy with either of us right now,” Duy explained.

“Yes sir,” Guy just gave him a sheepish grin. He was finding it very hard to feel bad about his little prank. “—Did you wanna come, Kakashi? We can go out and celebrate your promotion for real!”

Guy didn’t seem to actually expect Kakashi to say yes again.

So Kakashi nodded. “I’ll catch up to you two.”

“You will?” Guy asked, in utter shock, and Duy laughed.

Kakashi shrugged. “I have an errand to do first, but yes. I’ll meet you outside the hospital gates.” He vanished in a body flicker, and reappeared back at the training grounds, where he’d left the thank you gift that Guy had given him earlier.

Kakashi knelt down and picked it back up, turning the sloppy mess of flowers in his hands to try to find an angle where it looked more like a congratulatory collection of flowers. Guy was really bad at this.

Kakashi smiled to himself under his mask, glancing down at the bouquet in his hands. “Like I thought. He’s not worth getting worked up over. He has more than enough energy for the both of us…”

Kakashi held the bouquet to his nose, closing his eyes to inhale the sweet scents of sun-bleached fabric, and wildflowers. It smelled a little like Guy.

Like familiarity itself.

_“I picked you some flowers! Thank you for saving me!” Guy had said, too loud, and way too nice for someone who had looked so pitiful while Kakashi was glaring down at him just the other day. Like everything about the kid, the flowers were too much, too. Way too big, way too colorful. And with how much Guy smelled of sweat, it was too obvious that he had run all around the village picking flowers to throw together. Kakashi’s nose scrunched up and he pulled his scarf tighter._

_Duy stood behind him with a proud smile on his face. “It’s our way of thanking you! And of starting over! Guy will be attending school with young Kakashi after all, so I hope our sons will get along!”_

_“We won’t,” Kakashi interjected._

_Guy faltered slightly, but forced his smile back to its original exuberance. “Papa told me I should thank you! I saw some of the older students putting together flowers like this, and it seemed like fun, so I decided that is how I should thank you! I picked these out myself —see, the color is silvery, like you. Please accept these!”_

_Sakumo had smiled, still feeling a little awkward in front of the man whose son he had accidentally insulted before._

_Kakashi had glared. Even as he snatched up gaudy-looking flowers, Guy had just grinned._

And now Guy had graduated and knew more about what being a shinobi actually was, Sakumo was gone, and Kakashi was here. And still, Guy made the same type of ridiculous, not-very-pretty arrangements of flowers he picked from cracks in sidewalks and patches of grass. Maybe one day, Guy’s skills would improve in that area too.

But for now, it actually made him happy.

When Kakashi was with the familiar sight and smell of this bouquet, he felt something wash over him. If he closed his eyes while the wind blew his hair and the flower’s scent around, he could almost pretend nothing had changed at all.

Why had he saved Guy back then, when he barely knew anything about him except that he failed the exam and thanked Kakashi for “encouraging” him by pointing out he was a lost cause? He didn’t feel any closer to an answer, honestly.

He couldn’t keep these.

He might as well give them to someone to watch for him. He took the flowers and walked down a path Kakashi hadn’t bothered following in a while, to a graveyard Kakashi didn’t like to be at.

Kakashi hadn’t visited _this_ grave in quite some time. The last time he was here, Guy was with him. They hadn’t come together then —Guy had actually been here first, talking to the stone as if it could hear him.

“Father. I don’t have any real use for these. They’ll just die while I’m on a mission anyways. So, here. Guy probably wouldn’t mind you keeping these. You remember Guy. He’s the same as always. He’s…”

Kakashi had thought Guy was so stupid for talking to the cold, lifeless rock back then. But then, Kakashi also thought it was stupid the way that Guy had waited on Kakashi to finish paying his respects, then held out his arms and smiled, like he had expected Kakashi to actually hug him or confide in him or want him there at all. Kakashi had thought it was stupid the way Guy unflinching took the punches from him back then, when his emotions spilled over into anger and he lashed out. Kakashi had thought Guy was stupid for just waiting and pulling him close, looking the other way while he bawled like a little kid for what had been the first time in his entire life.

Kakashi still thought Guy was stupid for never bringing that moment of weakness up again, never using it against Kakashi for clout. Even if no one would believe him, Guy was stupid for not even trying.

“No, I guess he’s not exactly the same. You’d know what I mean if you were here. But he’s gotten a little smarter in all this time. It’s still not enough to do much in the field. …But what does that matter? He’s still a genin. I don’t know how he could have thought he would seriously rival me. He’s a kid.”

Kakashi finally set the bouquet down. The already wilting flowers matched well against the neglected tombstone.

“A kid that misses you, I guess.” Kakashi scoffed, “It’s weird. Thinking about it like that almost makes me _angrier_ at you. Why is that?”

Did he care that much about Guy? Given his behavior, that would be the logical conclusion, wouldn't it? He'd always assumed it was something more along the lines of annoyance with how weak he was —no, Kakashi felt that towards almost everyone. Guy’s entire existence got under his skin in a way he couldn't explain. It was deep. It was anger. It was sheer fury at so many things, but probably not at Guy himself. Kakashi didn’t hate Guy.

Guy was an existence he was _too_ familiar with, honestly.

But getting this worked up over it? It would almost imply they actually were friends – more than friends, even. What else could they have been called?

Acquaintances? In hindsight, Kakashi might have known Guy too well for that. Known him too long. He’d known him for a few years, but it had felt longer. So much longer. And of course, it did, that was most of Kakashi’s life so far. Whenever he looked at Guy, he saw a little kid who tried too hard and cared too much that he was supposed to believe would get stronger than him. Guy was something that broke every law of common sense and demanded the world around him follow a new set of rules. It was silly, but he was slowly gaining more favor with the others.

Enemies on friendly terms? It applied, technically. A prodigy and… the opposite of that. They were at odds by nature, but at the same time, “Rival” seemed to be another word that Guy had all but redefined. They'd worked together more than once, too. Kakashi never seemed hard enough to push him away. If only because of their allegiance to the same village, they were comrades, at least.

He couldn't define what they were, but perhaps that wasn't the question. What he wanted to know was why he felt this was so important. Friend or acquaintance, enemy or ally, he'd spent too much time fixated on this either way. It annoyed him that Genma was clearly trying to get at something, but wouldn’t even say what.

Kakashi took a deep breath and then released it, the ache in his lungs never having been quite so pronounced before.

After a few minutes of feeling raw, Kakashi stood back up. “Oh. I didn’t even tell you yet, did I? I’m a chunin now, dad.”

The hanging silence was his only answer there.

* * *

Kakashi almost missed that peace and quiet when the Might family dashed out of the hospital, cheering and laughing loudly. He would say he almost missed it if he was asked, at least.

“—Rival!” Guy called, noticing Kakashi stationed at the gate. His father trailed right behind him. His signature green jumpsuit had finally been returned, which was probably part of why he seemed happier now.

Guy looked Kakashi over curiously, lingering on the backpack Kakashi was carrying now. “Alright, Kakashi! The medics said I’m A-Okay! They even praised how good my body is at healing! We should compete in that someday! I bet I could win!”

“I’m sure you’d find a way to lose at that, too,” Kakashi assured him.

“Don’t look down on me! If I set my mind to it, I can absolutely do it! That’s just one more thing I have to prove to you then! —Hey, do you think I’ll earn my chunin vest by the time yours fits you?” Guy asked. “We can make that a contest too! Oh, and did you finish the errand you had to do? Was it a super important chunin thing? My Rival’s so incredible!”

“It’s confidential,” Kakashi answered coolly.

“So incredible!” Guy repeated.

“You’re too easily impressed…” Kakashi said, before Guy could ask anything else about where he’d gone, “Where are you heading now?”

“ _Home_ ,” Duy answered firmly for his son. “Resting is a part of training as well. Even if you’re healed.”

“Yes, Papa!” Guy said, as emphatic as he was obedient.

“Then,” Kakashi tugged on the straps of his backpack, “I guess we’ll celebrate there.”

“You’re coming home with us?” Guy asked.

Kakashi nodded blankly.

“But we live in a tiny wooden shack! In the middle of the woods! Without a real bed like yours!” Guy reminded him.

“So it’s fine for a man to go back on his promise as long as it’s because his house is small?” Kakashi teased.

That was all the convincing Guy needed to do a complete 180, laughing and bragging to Kakashi about how great Guy was at promises and how Kakashi would be welcome in their home, anytime, ever. Kakashi almost regretted getting him started on that. He continued his long, rambling speech all the way back to their cabin.

Duy flung open the door and ushered the two boys in. “Well then! I’ll cook us up a hearty meal! One worthy to celebrate how well both of you did in your exams and how hard both of you tried!” Duy ran off to the kitchen, so excited that it sounded like he knocked over something that cluttered and hit the floor. “—I’m fine!” He called from the other room.

Guy smiled to himself. “That’s youthful, too, I suppose…”

He sounded contemplative.

Kakashi dug in his backpack and pulled out his new chunin vest. He’d packed this rather quickly, but since he went through the trouble of bringing it, he might as well show Guy.

Guy tilted his head inquisitively. “That’s what you won in the exams, right? It’s bigger than I thought!”

Kakashi nodded again. “You said your goal was to manage it sometime before I can fit this, right? You need to see it to get an idea of how long you have before you fail in that self-rule, too.”

“How long I have to succeed in it, you mean!” Guy declared to himself, staring off into space while Kakashi slipped the vest on. “And I promise you, I will succeed! Or else I’ll… train my ninjutsu in accordance to Ebisu’s teachings nonstop for a week! That’s my self-rule!”

“Here it is,” Kakashi grumbled, and Guy turned his attention back to his rival. “Isn’t it ridiculous? There’s no way I can wear this in a fight, I’m better than any of the adults that were taking the test, they should have had one my size. Obito said—”

“—I like it a lot!” Guy blurted out suddenly, cheeks pink and gaze very intent on Kakashi’s vest.

“You what?”

“I like it! So much I was speechless for a second there! My heart nearly stopped! With your eyes and the big vest, you remind me of Ningame! And Ningame says he’s the most handsome tortoise in his village! If Ningame is the most handsome tortoise in his village, then you’re the most handsome one in ours! I’m pretty handsome myself, but I’ll concede that one to you just in this case! It looks just so cute, Rival! You look perfect! Like it was made for you! And it’s—"

For the second time today, Kakashi pulled off his vest and hurled it straight at someone’s face to shut them up.

This time, it wasn’t out of anger, _per se_.

Guy sat up and shook his head, struggling to properly pull the heavy vest off from on top of him. “Hey! What was that for!”

Kakashi brought his hand up to his face, tugging at the edge of his mask idly. Now would be the worst time to pull it down —his cheeks felt warm again. But as was the case when he was with Guy sometimes, his curiosity overruled his common sense.

Guy finally freed his head and moved the vest to his lap, and Kakashi simultaneously pulled his black mask down until it hung loosely around his neck.

“Kakashi, this is your important chunin vest, you shouldn’t just—” Guy started, but stopped short, blinking at the sight of Kakashi unmasked.

Kakashi flashed his teeth at Guy in a sudden fanged grin, and Guy looked away in shock. Before the shock, Kakashi had noticed confusion and sadness, like he sincerely didn’t know who he was looking at.

“I’m that hideous, hm?” Kakashi said playfully.

“That’s not—! You’re still a handsome tortoise, really! Um, a handsome ninja!” Guy argued, still looking everywhere but at Kakashi.

Kakashi reached forward, enveloping Guy in a sudden hug. Startled, it took Guy a moment to return it, and even when he did, he did so hesitantly, loosely, like he thought this was a trap of some sort.

Feeling awkward, Kakashi tightened the hug into a choking squeeze, and Guy did the same, both silently turning this from a hug into another competition to see who would give first.

“Kakashi, I…! Can’t breathe…!” Guy lost this one, too.

Kakashi laughed and pulled away, his mask still down around his neck. “The score’s 7-1, then?”

“No, that—” Guy started to argue, but seemed to reconsider. “…Fine. That’s not much of a competition, but I’ll give you that point. Just be prepared for a rematch!” Another grin, another Good Guy Pose.

Whatever they were, it was a reassuring kind of familiarity, at the end of the day.

It was no secret that Kakashi had never been that good with people. But he thought that perhaps, things could be simpler with Guy.

Settling on ignoring the weird feelings for a now, Kakashi pulled his mask back up.

“Better?”

Guy frowned, offering Kakashi an apologetic look and a nod. “…You figured it out too, then…? Another self-rule. I’ll learn to tell it’s you right away with or without your mask, and if I can’t ever manage that much, then…” Guy tugged up the collar of his jumpsuit, stretching it so it covered the lower half of his face. “I’ll start wearing a mask over my face too!”

A sound mixed between a scoff and a snort escaped Kakashi. He tried to sound like he was taking that seriously, though. “Alright. We’ll see.”

“Yes,” Guy held up a thumb. “we will!”

Kakashi could smell the scent of whatever Duy was putting together in the kitchen already. A number of scents wafted in the air –the fruity smell of kiwis and grapes were among them, and Kakashi wondered if Guy really would be unable to bring himself to eat something shaped like a turtle. Guy, who was looking over the chunin vest now, trying it on himself in childish curiosity. It looked as ridiculous and befitting of him as Kakashi had expected it would. Noticing Kakashi staring at him again, Guy tugged down his shirt collar to properly show Kakashi a determined smile.

It was odd.

These were things that he never would have been aware of before. Now it was almost overwhelming, the long unfamiliar sense of warmth and home that sunk into his heart.

It wasn’t a feeling Kakashi was used to. But instead of getting rid of it, he hoped to get used to it, eventually.


End file.
